Today, the FTC, along with 17 state attorneys general, sued Amazon in the Western District of Washington, arguing that it “is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.” The lawsuit alleges anticompetitive conduct both in the consumer-facing market, and in the services Amazon offers […]
Category Archives: Federal Trade Commission
The FTC’s Penalty Offenses authority seems good for consumers and businesses. It allows the FTC to warn businesses about specific practices that would constitute unfair and deceptive conduct under its statute, the FTC Act, with the threat of punishing penalties if they nevertheless engaged in the conduct. This warning ideally deters the misconduct and eliminates […]
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC continues to hamper the Federal Trade Commission’s work, and the Commission rightly is shining a spotlight on it. In a recently announced enforcement action, the FTC lamented the AMG decision, which it said limited its ability to secure refunds for duped investors of […]
More information here.
Here. I particularly enjoyed this episode of the podcast. Alan Kaplinsky conducted the interview.
In 2008, a federal district court, in an action brought under section 13(b) of the FTC Act, issued a permanent injunction against three dietary supplement companies and affiliates, finding that they had engaged in misleading and materially false marketing with respect to certain weight loss supplements. In 2017, the district court granted the FTC’s motion […]
The Federal Trade Commission will permanently ban Roomster Corp. and its owners from buying or incentivizing consumer reviews as part of a settlement over charges that they bought fake reviews to entice consumers to pay for access to living arrangement listings that they claimed were verified, authentic, and available but often turned out to be […]
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are sending a total of more than $9 million in refunds to 22,562 consumers who lost money to Ameritech Financial, a student-loan debt-relief scheme operated by Brandon Frere, who was convicted of criminal charges in connection with the scheme. Details are here.
In a complaint filed by the department of Justice on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC says that California-based Experian Consumer Services, also known as ConsumerInfo.com, Inc., spammed consumers with marketing offers after they signed up for an account with the company in order to manage their Experian credit report information. In the […]
Last month, the FTC updated its Endorsements Guide. The Guide’s definition of clear and conspicuous is particularly interesting. The Guide states: (f) For purposes of this part, “clear and conspicuous” means that a disclosure is difficult to miss ( i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers. * * * In any communication using […]