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A mobile banking app that promises consumers 24/7 access to their money and a high rate of interest? Sounds like a perfect 10. But according to a lawsuit filed by the FTC, San Francisco-based Beam Financial stumbled on required skills and definitely didn’t stick the dismount. Since March 2018, Beam Financial and CEO Aaron Du have advertised that people using the Beam app will “get 24/7 access to [their] funds” with “NO LOCKUP.” On its website...

For people dealing with student loan debt – your employees, a family member, or maybe you – the CARES Act gives emergency grants to qualifying borrowers. But like other financial assistance programs, consumers need to know key details up front. As part of its ongoing effort to monitor the marketplace for questionable claims arising from the COVID pandemic, FTC staff just sent a warning letter to New York-based Frank Financial Aid, raising...

The FTC continues to monitor the marketplace to protect consumers from allegedly unsubstantiated COVID-19 claims. What are we seeing? Whether they’re selling tablets, treatments, or trinkets, companies are still making questionable representations about their products or services. The following 20 businesses are the latest to receive warning letters from the FTC about unsupported prevention or treatment claims, bringing the total to more than 330...

Interested in what’s going on with the Franchise Rule? Reviewing the Franchise Rule: An FTC Virtual Workshop begins at 1:00 Eastern Time today – Tuesday, November 10, 2020. Minutes before the start of the workshop, follow the link on the event page to watch the webcast. In addition, FTC staff will live tweet from the FTC’s Twitter page using the hashtag #FranchiseRuleFTC.

This time last year, “zoom” was just a word related to speed. But the pandemic has made video conferencing platform Zoom a daily fixture for business people conferring about trade secrets, doctors and mental health professionals discussing sensitive patient information, kids keeping up with school work, and the rest of us sharing everything from the details of day-to-day life to confidential family matters. According to a just-announced FTC...

For years, the FTC has warned about imposters – scammers who masquerade as government officials, financial institutions, family members, etc., in an attempt to flimflam consumers and businesses. The FTC just filed a lawsuit alleging a variation on the imposter scheme. According to the complaint, the defendants set up dozens of look-alike websites to fool people into thinking they were ordering name-brand merchandise from established national...

Next Monday and Tuesday, November 9 and 10, we will be hosting a virtual Question and Answer session to discuss the Commission’s Hart-Scott-Rodino Rulemaking initiative. On Monday from 1 to 2 pm, we will be discussing the proposed changes in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would, if adopted, require filers to disclose additional information about their associates and to aggregate acquisitions in the same issuer across those entities...

Buying a franchise is a major financial commitment for consumers. The Franchise Rule was put in place to ensure consumers have key information to weigh the risks and benefits of their potential investment. As part of its ongoing regulatory review process, the FTC is hosting an online workshop, Reviewing the Franchise Rule, on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. Check out the just-released agenda. FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith...

With the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), Congress required pharmaceutical companies to file certain patent settlement agreements with the FTC. Given the FTC’s unique role in reviewing these submissions, going back to 2004, staff of the Bureau of Competition publishes fiscal year MMA reports on the types of terms used in these settlements. These reports, and the data they contain about...

1970 saw the ban of cigarette advertising on TV, the debut of Doonesbury, the inaugural flight of the Boeing 747, and the start of the New York City Marathon. Another notable 1970 first celebrating its 50th anniversary this week: the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the nation’s first consumer financial privacy statute. A review of 50 years of enforcement suggests that the law has been worth its weight in gold to consumers. But it also demonstrates...