la liberté avant tout
Regulations ruined ride-hailing, Vienna edition. Since 2021 in Austria, all ride-sharing, ride-hailing, and “digital dispatch” apps (services like Uber and Bolt) are regulated as taxi services. For anyone to drive another person for money, no matter the arrangement, they are required to hold a Taxi license. This was passed by the Austrian Parliament in 2020, under the…
In its effort to protect global forests, the E.U. is imposing complex tracking requirements that could raise prices and create new trade hurdles. Are the products you’re buying BPA-free? Nut-free? How about GMO-free? If the European Union (E.U.) has its way, we’ll soon be adding a new label to our shopping list vocabulary: “deforestation-free.” Far…
A day doesn’t pass in Washington without some kind of new health controversy grabbing headlines and inviting fresh skepticism of national health authorities. 5G and brain health. Tylenol causes autism. Vaccine confusion galore. Though we survived the excesses of the COVID era and its dizzying health recommendations, those days aren’t necessarily behind us. It’s just changed flavors to…
President Trump started 2026 with new fights on many fronts, including one that may even excite the left-wing flank in Washington — a battle with the consumer lending industry. On Truth Social last week, the president declared Americans will no longer be “ripped off” by the credit card industry, endorsing a one-year cap on interest rates at 10 percent….
If the true crime phenomenon on streaming platforms and podcasts has proven anything in the recent decade, apart from our collective addiction to onscreen misery, it’s that courtrooms and science don’t mix well. “” A popular Netflix series “Exhibit A” explores dozens of cases muddied by fringe scientific evidence, including Touch DNA, cadaver dogs and blood splatter evidence. Another…
The companies behind Tony the Tiger, Fruit Loops, Heinz ketchup, Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Lucky Charms are lawyering up as the government takes them to court. Earlier this month, San Francisco launched a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against major food manufacturers, blaming them for the obesity and health crisis that has become a rallying cry for progressive activists and Robert…
Not more than a year ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a handsomely paid partner for the injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, the largest and most profitable firm in the country, with a reputation as a reliable Democratic megadonor and interest group. As the controversial HHS Secretary enters his second year, RFK’s record thus far looks less like…
Australia’s under-16 social media ban is now live. On @ForumDailyNews, Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski drilled through implications of social media bans and age-gating, why such schemes are unworkable and detrimental to privacy and security online, and why they’re likely coming soon to other countries. December 10, 2025 https://consumerchoicecenter.org
I was invited on the Tony Kinnett show to break down the realities behind COP30, climate accords, and rising energy costs for consumers. From carbon credits to EU net-zero plans, we delve into the complexities of global climate policy and its implications for your finances.
For decades, Americans have been told their 401(k) is “their” retirement, but when it comes to managing those funds, most find they have little to no control. Tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k) plans, Roth IRAs, Health Savings Accounts, and 403(b) plans generously reward people for setting money aside toward their golden years, and that comes with…
The Trump administration is taking a well-earned victory lap after successfully delaying a carbon tax on the shipping and logistics industry at a United Nations meeting in London last month. “The U.S. achieved a diplomatic victory and successfully rallied a coalition to stop the body’s proposed ‘net-zero framework,’” wrote Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the effort to delay by one year a proposal to implement new climate…
Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling…
Energy is getting very expensive for American households. NPR reported as recently as August that one in six families struggles to pay their utility bills, and energy costs nationwide are outpacing inflation by more than 100 percent. New Englanders aren’t crazy to suspect their electric bills increased this year, and winter has yet to even…
The US-east-1 outage of October 20th, 2025 explains why we need yet more data centers and energy capacity. Yesterday, Internet users in the US and abroad awoke to some kind of errors and issues when loading their favorite websites and services. A global outage! Hundreds of thousands of users flocked to real time monitoring websites…
The federal health bureaucracy’s latest health advice deals with Tylenol, pregnancy, and a supposed link to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It’s a controversial flag for the Trump administration to plant, but it’s on-brand for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who knows precisely what he’s doing. RFK Jr. is relying on select studies and questionable experts for…
The Australian eSafety Commissioner is using the Online Safety Act to force online platforms to take down certain videos, or else. The Anglosphere is in the midst of yet another drawn-out battle questioning the limits of freedom of speech, online safety, and the ability for online users to share information on their social media networks….
Like a broken clock, a reboot of a superhero movie, or a rehabilitation of Charlie Sheen, Americans faced with yet another shutdown of the federal government. With funding that expired on September 30th at midnight, the usual partisan fights are evolving and devolving in Washington, D.C., breaking open the fissures of the cobbled-together mess of…
I was interviewed by Protos about the ongoing Bitcoin node debate between Core and Knots. Though I’m not a lawyer, I know enough about Section 230 and existing judicial precedent that Bitcoin noderunners aren’t liable for what’s on the blockchain: Bitcoin Policy Institute Fellow and Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director, Yaël Ossowski According to Ossowski,…
The state of Ohio is in a mini-panic about the kratom plant and its derivative alkaloids, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). We should be cautious before we launch the next war on drugs, which would cause further harm to consumers and families. Driven by some fear-mongering headlines, industry lobbying, and even Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert…
I was interviewed by the New York Sun on the latest announcements by RFK Jr. surrounding Tylenol and acetaminophen, and how this will supercharge the lawsuit industry: The deputy director at the Consumer Choice Center, Yaël Ossowski, says a district judge threw out the case because the expert testimonies used by the plaintiffs were determined…