At an annual awards event
in Washington, D.C. June 16, 2004, the Consumer Federation of America presented
the Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award to the National
Consumer Law Center of Boston, MA, and to Rosemary Shahan, President
of CARS. This prestigious award is widely recognized as the top award
in the consumer movement.
Other award recipients were New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (Philip
Hart Public Service Award), United States Representative Charles Rangel (Philip
Hart Public Service Award) and David Fanning, Senior Producer of PBS' Frontline
(Betty Furness Consumer Media Award).
The Consumer Federation of America stated in its brochure about the awards
event:
Rosemary Shahan is [one of the] nation's leading advocates for vehicle
safety and fair treatment of consumers at car dealerships. As President of
California-based CARS, and founder of Motor Voters, Rosemary has invested
twenty-five years of passion, hard work, and advocacy in making an immeasurable
difference in safety and consumer rights and protections. She initiated California’s
auto ‘lemon law’ to make manufacturers stand behind defective
vehicles, leading to similar laws in all fifty states.
Her campaign for airbags covered all fronts, including lobbying Lee Iacocca
to switch from opposing to supporting air bags. Her picket of one manufacturer
for its low-ranked safety record led to a safety recall. Rosemary has been
in the thick of fights ranging from stopping gag orders in lemon law case
settlements, a media campaign to press for recall of “firebomb”
pickups, exposure of “lemon laundering” of defective autos to
unsuspecting used car buyers, and stopping a Senate attempt to preempt state
auto salvage fraud laws.
Her most recent campaign is to win a Car Buyer’s Bill of Rights in California.
As a consumer advocate who has single-handedly tackled widespread consumer
abuses and frequently stopped them, Rosemary is especially deserving of the
Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award.
The Consumer Federation of America, founded in 1968, is a national non-profit
federation of more than 260 organizations from throughout the nation with
a combined membership exceeding 50 million people. Rosemary has been elected
to a third three-year term on the Board of Directors of CFA, where she has
served as co-chair of CFA’s Committee on Housing and Transportation
for over a decade.
