Consumer Reports: The World’s Most Useful Magazine

Consumer Reports Consumer Reports is a monthly publication of the American non-profit consumer advocate association, Consumers Union. In 1936, a group of experienced product testers and advocates for consumers The Consumers Union set out on an endeavor to provide and impartial product reviews, employing scientific methods in settings suitable for research and testing. Although the company was not huge but their goal was to serve as an alternative against the rapidly increasing mass media advertising trend which began in the 1930s. This frequently featured misleading advertisements for products to a naive and uninformed market. Consumer Reports has been growing to become one of the top ten magazines with the highest circulations within the United States and how has an annual test budget of $21 million. The bulk of the organization’s guidance is directly from American consumers through the publication’s annual ballot and questionnaire which are taken by more than 1 million people across the country which makes it one of the biggest and most extensive consumer research studies anywhere in the world. Based on a fervent determination to provide honest, objective review of products, Consumer Reports has been a trusted friend for the American consumer as well as a watchdog for manufacturers of products around the world for more than 100 years.

Additionally to its printed magazine, Consumers Union publishes ConsumerReports.org and Consumer Reports about Health and Consumer Reports Money Advisor with combined subscriptions that exceed 8 million. ConsumerReports.org has the highest number of pay-per-view subscribers than other website that is based on publications and the majority of the information is only accessible to subscribers who pay. The benefit of the site is that it allows you to assess the past and current times when publishing digitally. Alongside the features and articles available on paper, the site releases updates on product availability as well as adds new products previously published tests, and includes additional information that is not published in print magazines for example, tables of reliability for vehicles that go across the entire 10 model years covered in the mymmanews mma Annual Questionnaires as opposed to the 6-year history that is printed in the print version.

Through its long time, Consumer Reports and the Consumer Union have endured significant criticism and threats from commercial companies and even officials from the government. However, support from consumers increased and increased with the growth of the organization. Consumer Reports became such a strong force that in the mid-80s, companies that disagreed with the opinions of consumers about their products were seeking legal action:

In 1981, Bose Corporation sued Consumers Union for libel over the negative review. In the end, U.S. Supreme Court deemed that the comment made in Consumer Reports’ Consumer Reports product review was not malicious and therefore not libelous.

In 1996, following an “not unacceptable” critique on the Suzuki Samurai in 1988 was re-reported in an issue of Consumer Reports anniversary issue, Suzuki sued Consumers Union. The lawsuit was resolved and dismissed in 2004. Consumers Union agreeing only to end the use of Samurai’s review in any future publications.

The trial took place in December of 1997. Rivera Isuzu, a distributor of the Isuzu Trooper in Puerto Rico, sued Consumers Union asserting that their poor review of the Trooper led to a loss of sales. A trial court as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals approved the judgment for Consumers Union.

The year 2003 saw Sharper Image sued Consumers Union in California due to negative reviews of their Ionic Breeze Air purifier, Quadra. The lawsuit was dismissed in the month of November in 2004. Consumers Union was also awarded $525,000 in legal costs and fees.

Consumers Union has fought every legal battle and has won in large part because of the impartial review process and its transparency which is one of the foundational principles of the group. Consumers Union is the largest and longest-running consumer group around the globe and has achieved notoriety for their dedication to impartial, professional, non-profit testing and reports. This is why Consumer Reports does not accept any outside advertisements products, samples of products or any other form of commercial reviewers to use the reviews. All the products that are tested are purchased through the internet through Consumer Reports staff and there are no samples accepted from the manufacturers, thereby making it impossible to have the appearance of bribery or bias. Beyond their integrity as a business, Consumers Union has even extended their influence in Capitol Hill, employing lobbyists as well as grassroots organizers and outreach specialists to promote consumer protection and awareness in each aspect of American society.