Our 2022 Impact

Building a Consumer-First Economy

Since our founding 86 years ago, Consumer Reports has been working to raise the bar for consumers - helping people find the best products, helping businesses improve what they sell, and helping policymakers establish higher standards for the marketplace.

The past fiscal year presented many economic challenges for consumers, as we continued to deal with the impact of COVID-19, energy price spikes, and inflation.

Thanks to members like you, we are building a collective power that brings about real change, with companies held accountable for how they treat consumers, and an economy that puts consumers first.

We're excited to share CR's FY22 Annual Report with you to highlight a productive year with wins that made the marketplace safer and fairer.

CONSUMER REPORTS

BY THE NUMBERS

6+ million

members

CR is proud to have more than 6 million members in all 50 states, who access ratings and reviews on our website, receive our publications, and engage in our campaigns for marketplace change.
2,000+

products tested

In fiscal year 2022, CR tested over 2,000 products and services in 100+ categories.
150+

partnerships with organizations to advance marketplace change

CR works with an extraordinary range of safety experts, family organizations, public interest groups, philanthropic institutions, and other partners to raise consumer voices and advocate for a better marketplace.
11+ million

unique visitors per month

CR has a wide reach across digital, print, and broadcast media, with more than 11 million people visiting our flagship website, ConsumerReports.org, each month.
$29.18 million

donated

CR is able to achieve its impact through the generous support of our donors, who went above and beyond in fiscal year 2022. We are deeply grateful to both longtime and new members for supporting CR's mission to create a fair and just marketplace.
1.3+ million

consumers tell us what they think

We heard from more than 1.3 million consumers through our research and outreach tools, such as our 50 major nationally representative surveys.

RAISING CONSUMER VOICES

1.7

million

The number of signatures and emails that CR members and activists sent to policymakers and company CEOs to advocate for reforms, including digital rights, financial fairness, safety, and sustainability.

274,579

signatures, emails

Get PFAS chemicals out of our water, food packaging, and products

182,967

signatures, emails, surveys

To fight for a fair internet and transparent pricing

129,500

signatures, emails

Reduce contamination from heavy metals in spices

KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE

landmark safety law

President Biden signed an infant safety law championed by CR, doctors, safety experts, and grieving families. The Safe Sleep for Babies Act bans two dangerous infant sleep products: inclined sleepers and crib bumper pads, both of which are unsafe for infant sleep and have been linked with close to 200 reported deaths. The law was prompted in large part by a CR investigation that revealed dozens of deaths tied to products such as the Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper, which were not covered by federal standards.

REMOVING DANGEROUS CHEMICALS FROM FOOD PACKAGING

fast-food
chains

Three national fast-food restaurant chains—Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Nathan’s Famous—publicly announced they would limit dangerous PFAS chemicals in their food packaging, once they learned of CR's investigation that revealed PFAS in wrappers, cups, bowls, and other containers from restaurants and grocery stores. Eleven states have enacted laws that ban the intentional use of PFAS in food packaging, and we are also advocating for a national ban.

CR’s work on this dangerous class of chemicals won a Fast Company 2022 World Changing Ideas Award for our year-long series with the Guardian US to expose the widespread contamination of PFAS in tap water.

FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY

new privacy reforms

Connecticut passed a comprehensive privacy law, which grants consumers the right to access, delete, and stop the sale of their personal information. CR worked closely with consumers and state lawmakers to improve and advance the law. It includes key provisions that are missing from some other state privacy laws, such as a requirement for companies to honor browser privacy signals, so that people can easily opt out of data sales at all companies in a single step.

California, which is home to the nation's strongest data privacy law, approved two new laws endorsed by CR. They're aimed at direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies like Ancestry and 23andMe. The laws forbid the use of a person's genetic data without their consent, and requires that such data is stored securely.

Plus, California’s attorney general mandated that businesses must honor the Global Privacy Control—a web browser extension that CR helped develop—so that consumers can opt out of the sale of their data across all of the websites they visit.

EXPOSING PROBLEMS WITH CREDIT APPS

credit score
apps

CR took a hard look at five popular apps that provide credit score monitoring—Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Experian Credit Report, TransUnion Score & Report, and myFICO. We found that they have significant drawbacks and only a few upsides. All collect and share more data about you than they need to perform their core functions, mainly so that they can upsell you other products and services. And most do not provide access to the type of credit scores that can meaningfully help you. Given the huge impact that your credit has on your financial power, we believe your real credit score and credit report should always be free and accessible to you.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF AMAZON WAREHOUSES

69%

of Amazon
warehouses located
in communities of
color

CR and the Guardian investigated Amazon and the impact of its growing number of warehouses on residential neighborhoods. People who live near the new warehouses told reporters that they face increased air pollution from trucks and vans, more dangerous streets for kids walking or biking, clogged traffic, and near-constant noise. We found that Amazon opens most of its warehouses in neighborhoods with a disproportionately high number of people of color and low-income residents: 69 percent of Amazon warehouses have a greater share of people of color living within a mile radius than the typical neighborhood in the same metro area, and 57 percent of Amazon warehouses are in neighborhoods with a greater share of low-income residents than typical for the same metro area. We shared our findings with the company and other stakeholders. We are urging Amazon to measure and mitigate the pollution, traffic, and other impacts, commit to electrifying its heavy-duty fleet of vehicles, and directly engage with communities before moving into their neighborhoods.

WORKING FOR CLEANER CARS THAT SAVE MONEY

$2,400

in savings for a new
car owner

A typical car buyer will save $2,400 over the lifetime of a new vehicle starting in 2026. The savings will come from improvements in fuel economy in new cars and light-duty trucks under a new CR-endorsed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency. Better fuel economy means fewer costly trips to the gas pump for consumers.

The rule will also reduce harmful emissions and accelerate the introduction of more low-emission and zero-emission vehicles. The EPA estimates the program will result in avoiding more than 3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2050.

The EPA originally proposed a weaker rule. Dozens of CR members testified before the agency, and we submitted more than 25,000 consumer petition signatures to tell the regulators why the U.S. needed higher standards. The EPA clearly listened to consumers, because the final rule included many of our recommendations.

ADVOCATING FOR SAFER CARS AND ROADS

9,000+

lives saved per year

Congress passed a bipartisan infrastructure law that contains many auto safety reforms endorsed by CR. The law requires all new cars to come standard with effective, passive technology to prevent drunk and impaired driving, which the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates could save more than 9,000 lives per year—preventing fully one-quarter of all road fatalities.

The law also includes CR-supported provisions to improve auto recalls and safety reporting by manufacturers, and require cars to come standard with automatic shutoff systems to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

IMPROVING BROADBAND

20,000+

broadband bills

CR’s Fight for Fair Internet seeks to reveal the true cost of broadband for people across the U.S. Working with more than 50 partner groups, we asked people to share their internet bills, test their speeds, and tell us about their service. We are now evaluating more than 20,000 bills and responses from more than 50,000 consumers across the U.S.

CR worked with members of Congress to include nearly $60 billion in funds to improve broadband access and affordability in the bipartisan infrastructure law. We also succeeded in getting a provision in the law to require internet service providers to create a broadband "nutrition" label, which will clearly tell people the price of service, any additional fees, internet speeds, the dates when discounts will expire, and other important information that might otherwise be hidden in the fine print.

DETECTING DANGEROUS FOOD

28,000

pounds of ground beef

For the first time, CR's testing prompted a recall of dangerous food. We detected a potentially deadly contaminant in one of our samples of Kroger-branded ground beef sold at a Fred Meyer supermarket in Seattle. We immediately alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. The agency promptly investigated the plant where the meat was processed, resulting in a recall by the distributor of 28,000 pounds of ground beef shipped from the plant to other national stores in addition to Kroger’s, like Walmart and Albertsons.

Consumers can now get text messages about food recalls and foodborne illnesses by signing up for Food Safety Alert.

FIXING BROKEN SYSTEMS—AND BROKEN PROMISES

555,000

teachers, military service members, and other public servants

After thousands of complaints by consumers and groups like CR, the Department of Education finally took steps to overhaul its broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

Created by Congress in 2007, the program promised student loan forgiveness for people who devoted a decade of their lives to public service. But 98 percent of the applicants were rejected. The system was poorly managed by loan servicers. It left hundreds of thousands of teachers, military service members, nurses, and other public servants with huge surprise debts. Pressure by CR's members and others led to changes in October 2022, clearing a path for some 550,000 affected people to move toward the debt cancellation that was offered to them.

SHINING A LIGHT ON OVERPRICED AUTO LOANS

858,000

car loans

Over the last decade, the monthly cost of auto loans has shot up more than 25 percent, and auto loan debt held by Americans has surpassed $1.4 trillion. CR analyzed 858,000 auto loans from major lenders that were bundled into bonds sold to investors. Our investigation found that consumers who are financially similar and have comparable credit scores can be charged wildly different interest rates. Even people with high credit scores can be charged exorbitantly, suggesting that dealers and lenders may be setting interest rates not only on risk but also on what they think they can get away with.

REMOVING UNSAFE PRODUCTS FROM THE MARKET

3.3

million

baby loungers

Following an investigation by CR linking Boppy baby loungers to infant deaths, the company recalled some 3.3 million products. While we welcomed the recall, our findings from public government data underscored that based on the design of the product, Boppy should not have introduced these newborn loungers in the first place and should have taken recall action much sooner. We used the recall to reinforce how outdated our federal product safety laws are, and why Congress needs to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission's ability to warn the public about hazardous products and hold companies accountable.

RAISING THE BAR FOR CYBERSECURITY

$6.9

billion

in money lost

Cybercrimes cost people in the U.S. more than $6.9 billion last year, according to the FBI. Phishing scams, personal data breaches, and ransomware are just a few examples of the cyber attacks that threaten people’s security, privacy, and money. Cyber criminals can disrupt phone and computer networks, cause electricity blackouts, and take control of information systems.

To help consumers protect themselves and their communities, CR has launched a major cybersecurity initiative. We are scaling up our product research and testing, investigative journalism, and advocacy to identify dangers and advance solutions. This effort includes free apps to help people manage their personal cybersecurity, more testing of products like antivirus software and virtual private networks, and the development of a "nutrition label" for digital devices that explains their data collection and security practices.