FTC actions in December

The Federal Trade Commission made a few interesting announcements in late December:

• FTC Orders an End to Illegal Mastercard Business Tactics and Requires it to Stop Blocking Competing Debit Card Payment Networks (Dec. 23) – Mastercard will have to start providing competing networks with customer account information they need to process debit payments, reversing a practice the company allegedly had been using to keep them out of the ecommerce debit payment business and, according to the FTC, that violated provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act known as the Durbin Amendment and its implementing rule.
  
• FTC Announces New Business Guidance for Marketers and Sellers of Health Products (Dec. 20)- The revised business guide represents a substantial update to the staff’s 1998 guide, Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide For Industry.
  
• Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges (Dec. 19) – Epic will pay a $275 million penalty for violating children’s privacy law, change default privacy settings, and pay $245 million in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges.
  
• FTC Action Leads to Permanent Ban for Scammers Behind ‘The Credit Game’ Credit Repair Scheme (Dec. 15)