The phrase “dark patterns” was invented by Harry Brignull and has been defined by the FTC as ““practices that trick or manipulate users into making choices they would not otherwise have made and that may cause harm.” Examples include web sites that makes it easy to purchase an ongoing service but that make it harder […]
Category Archives: Federal Trade Commission
In an amicus brief filed this week, the Federal Trade Commission once again stood up for children’s privacy protections under state law that are consistent with federal law and its regulations. The case, Jones v. Google, involved a group of children who, through their guardians ad litem, sued online video platform YouTube and its owner […]
Myriam E. Gilles of Cardozo has written The Private Attorney General in a Time of Hyper-Polarized Politics, 65 Ariz. L. Rev. 337 (2023). Here’s the abstract: With the enactment of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”) in 1914 and the Wheeler–Lea Act in 1938, Congress sought to establish a brawny federal consumer protection regime to […]
I came across this Federal Trade Commission s interactive dashboard for refund data, which gives a state-by-state breakdown of refunds in FTC cases. Clicking on the “refunds by date” tab shows that 1.9 million people cashed refunds totaling more than $392 million in 2022.
The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $557,000 to consumers who paid money to GDP Network, LLC (YF Solution), a Florida-based telemarketing company that promised credit card interest rate reductions and regularly failed to deliver. The FTC and the State of Florida sued GDP Network and its owners in July 2020, alleging […]
The Federal Trade Commission has stopped a pair of student loan debt relief schemes that it says bilked students out of approximately $12 million by using deceptive claims about repayment programs and loan forgiveness that did not exist. The agency also says the companies falsely claimed to be or be affiliated with the Department of […]
In 2021, in the case of AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, the Supreme Court held that section 13(b) of the FTCA does not, contrary to a decades-long practice, allow the FTC to obtain equitable monetary judgments via court proceedings without first going through administrative proceedings as required to obtain such relief under section 19. […]
In November 2022, the FTC brought a lawsuit against the operators of a telemarketing debt relief scheme based in Tennessee. Operating under a variety of trade names, the network had tricked consumers to part with tens of millions of dollars based on false promises to eliminate or substantially reduce credit card debt. This week, the […]
As automated systems spread throughout the economy, federal agencies announce that they will use existing authorities to ensure compliance with the law. “We take seriously our responsibility to ensure that these rapidly evolving automated systems are developed and used in a manner consistent with federal laws,” said the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, […]
Politico reports: “As demand for sustainable products has skyrocketed, so have concerns about greenwashing. Public comments were due yesterday on the FTC’s first update in 11 years of its “Green Guides,” which are essentially advice for how companies can make environmental marketing claims. The nearly 60,000 comments shed light on what companies, industry trade groups […]