MilConsumer Blog Feed

Using their own colorful vocabulary, motocross devotees do their best to distance themselves from flat landing, roosting, and whiskey throttle. Something else many motocross, motorcycle, and all-terrain vehicle fans want to avoid: parts and equipment made in other countries , but imported into the United States already packaged with false “Made in USA” labels. That’s what the FTC alleges that North Carolina-based Cycra did, in violation of the...

To borrow a phrase the Supreme Court coined in a different context, if there is a “fixed star” in the consumer protection constellation, it’s the advertising substantiation doctrine. In place for decades and explained in a 1984 Policy Statement , the underlying legal requirement is clear: companies must have a reasonable basis to support their advertising claims before those claims are disseminated. Multiple litigated decisions have added detail...

For grieving consumers who have to make funeral or cremation arrangements for loved ones in other parts of the country, the internet can ease the burden of long-distance logistics – but not if companies violate the law. Last year, the Department of Justice filed suit on the FTC’s behalf, charging that Legacy Cremation Services, owner Anthony Joseph Damiano, and related companies targeted the bereaved with practices that violated the FTC Act and...

By any measure, this year has been extraordinary. Our litigation workload continues to expand, with eight cases in various stages of administrative or federal court litigation and three on appeal. The latest, in which a unanimous Commission authorized staff to block the merger of the two largest providers of home mortgage loan origination systems and other key lender software tools, is an enormous undertaking, involving several horizontal and...

Last year the Bureau of Competition created its own Criminal Liaison Unit (“CLU”) as part of a Commission initiative to expand its existing criminal referral program and protect the public from criminal conduct. Headed by two former DOJ Antitrust Division criminal prosecutors, the CLU works with other BC staff to identify and refer to criminal prosecutors conduct uncovered during the course of FTC investigations and litigations. While the FTC is...

Prenotification plans, continuity programs, automatic renewals, free-to-pay conversions. They’re all variations on the negative option theme. Under the right circumstances, those marketing methods can be convenient for consumers. But as decades of FTC law enforcement makes clear, when negative options are tainted with untruths, half-truths, and hidden strings, the impact on consumers can be, well, negative. That’s why the FTC is asking for public...

Spend time on social media and video streaming platforms and what will you find? Photos from friends’ vacations, aspirational kale salads, the latest dance fads – and ads for bogus health products, financial scams, counterfeit goods, and the like. How many fraudulent ads appear on those platforms? We conservatively estimate it as . . . a whole lot. The FTC is asking Meta, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch for...

The FTC just released a Request for Information (RFI) on the business practices of Cloud Computing Providers. The RFI is a tool to gather information and inform the FTC’s understanding of cloud computing – we're interested in hearing about issues from users of cloud services, academics, civil society groups, industry participants, and more. Our interests are similar to those of other regulatory colleagues in the US [1], UK [2], France [3], Japan...

The FTC is considering proposed changes to the Eyeglass Rule and has announced a May 18, 2023, public workshop, A Clear Look at the Eyeglass Rule. I f you have clients in the industry – or if you’re interested in consumers’ rights when shopping for glasses – you’ll want to read the Federal Register Notice to see how the issues are framed. The Ophthalmic Practice Rules – most people know it as the Eyeglass Rule – require ophthalmologists and...

You may have heard of simulation theory, the notion that nothing is real and we’re all part of a giant computer program. Let’s assume at least for the length of this blog post that this notion is untrue. Nonetheless, we may be heading for a future in which a substantial portion of what we see, hear, and read is a computer-generated simulation. We always keep it real here at the FTC, but what happens when none of us can tell real from fake? In a...