Courts often grapple with the question of when an agency’s action is final for various purposes. And the answer can be different for different purposes–particularly since various statutory provisions related to judicial review use different words or phrases. For example, 47 U.S.C. s. 402 allows parties to seek review of certain FCC actions within “thirty […]
Category Archives: Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission reported Friday that complaints about unwanted calls are dropping – and they have been doing so for three straight years. Complaints of unwanted calls reported in 2024 decreased more than 50% from the complaints recorded in 2021 (5 million+ complaints in 2021 to ~2 million in 2024), according to FTC’s Do […]
After Meta, parent company of Facebook, acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, the FTC brought Sherman Act antitrust claims against the company in 2020. The district court had previously denied a motion to dismiss, and, yesterday, denied both parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment–finding the case must go to trial. In so doing, though, the court commented that […]
The FTC brought administrative proceedings against tax preparation company H&R Block, arguing that the company had made deceptive statements about its “free filing” products. H&R Block brought an action in federal district court seeking to enjoin the administrative proceedings, challenging the FTC’s structure. Yesterday, the FTC announced the parties had reached a settlement of the […]
The future, they say, is the hardest thing to predict. With that caveat, what can we expect from a second Trump administration for consumer prediction? Some quick thoughts: President-elect Trump will surely ask CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to resign so that he can replace Chopra with someone he prefers. Despite the fact that Vice President-elect […]
The Federal Trade Commission took action against Credit Karma in 2022, alleging that the company told consumers they were “pre-approved” and had “90% odds” of approval to entice them to apply for credit card offers that, in many instances, they ultimately did not qualify for. Credit Karma later agreed to to stop making these types […]
Today, the FTC announced it had finalized its “Click-to-Cancel Rule.” Amending its 1973 “Negative Option Rule,” the rule will prohibit sellers from: misrepresenting any material fact made while marketing goods or services with a negative option feature; failing to clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms prior to obtaining a consumer’s billing information in connection with […]
A company called “DoNotPay” operated an artificial intelligence service that it called “the world’s first robot lawyer,” which it claimed “would allow consumers to “sue for assault without a lawyer” and “generate perfectly valid legal documents in no time.” Not surprisingly, the product did not live up to its claims. In late September, the FTC […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission this week issued their annual reporting of their debt collection activities. The CFPB, required under the Consumer Financial Protection Act to report to Congress annually on its activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, recounted its ongoing work on medical debt. Notably, in […]
Care.com is an online platform that matches child and older adult caregivers with consumers looking to hire such caregivers. In a federal court complaint filed yesterday, the FTC alleges that Care systematically deceived caregivers who were looking for jobs while failing to give families seeking care a simple way to cancel their paid memberships, in […]