Privacy notices get low grade

The privacy notices stuffed into envelopes with bank and brokerage-firm statements and credit card bills aren’t getting much of a reading from consumers and are too complicated for most to understand, regulators say.

The notices from financial institutions disclosing their privacy policies, required by law, should be simpler, shorter and better designed so that consumers can understand them, said a report issued Friday.

Commissioned by the Federal Reserve and other bank regulatory agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the report concluded that consumers are overwhelmed by complex information and that a new form of privacy notice is needed.

Researchers at Kleimann Communication Group, which conducted the study over 12 months, used focus groups of consumers to get their reactions to sample notices. They created privacy notices in tabular formats.

Chicago

United raises fares; others likely to follow

United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., late Thursday raised domestic air fares across the board, increasing one-way fares from $2 to $50, depending on the route and type of fare.

United added $2 to $4 to each one-way fare in markets served by low-cost competitors, and $5 to each one-way leisure fare in other markets. United increased business fares – tickets which can be purchased at the last minute – by $50 each way.

Other major airlines are expected to follow United’s lead.

By midmorning Friday, Delta Air Lines Inc. said it would increase its business fares by $50 each way.

Earlier this week, American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp., said it would stop absorbing passenger facility charges in markets where there are alternative nonstop flights.

Los Angeles

Lawsuit targets ‘snake oil’ sunscreen

A lawsuit alleges that sunscreen manufacturers exaggerate the degree to which their products protect against harmful ultraviolet rays.

“Sunscreen is the snake oil of the 21st century,” said Samuel Rudman, a partner in the Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins law firm, which filed the lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “False claims such as ‘sunblock,’ ‘waterproof’ and ‘all-day protection’ should be removed from these products immediately.”

Schering-Plough Corp., which makes Coppertone, has “vigorously disputed” the allegations, spokeswoman Denise Foy said. That company and Neutrogena Corp., a Johnson & Johnson unit based in Los Angeles, said all of their sunscreens comply with Food and Drug Administration rules.