MilConsumer Blog Feed

Homeowners are looking for skilled home repair professionals. Service providers – plumbers, remodelers, landscapers, etc. – are looking for customers. That match used to happen through word of mouth or perhaps a sign on a community bulletin board. Now companies like HomeAdvisor collect information about homeowners and then sell those leads to service providers. But an FTC administrative complaint alleges that HomeAdvisor deceived its members –...

M any small businesses go to online retailing platform CafePress when they want to buy or sell customized items. However, according to a proposed FTC settlement , the company’s lax security practices allowed data thieves to take the idea of “personalization” in a disturbingly different direction. The complaint alleges that hackers exploited the company’s security failures to access personal information about millions of CafePress users –...

For people trying to gain a financial foothold, the promise of “$10,000 per week” is a heavyweight representation. But all too often, they wind up losing their life savings to the promoters of bogus investment schemes. The FTC just announced a $2.425 million settlement in its action against RagingBull.com , an outfit the agency says exploited people’s dreams of economic security while often leaving them on the financial ropes and trapped in hard...

Consumers’ health information is already a particularly sensitive category. But health information and other personal data from kids as young as eight? That can raise privacy concerns to the stratosphere. A $1.5 million FTC settlement with WW International, Inc. – you know them by the previous name Weight Watchers – and its subsidiary Kurbo, Inc. , underscores the principle that collecting and maintaining that kind of information raises a company...

Two years into the pandemic and you thought you’d seen it all? How about an herbal tea that claims to cure COVID in 24-48 hours? It’s a representation the FTC says is steeped in deception. So we’ve joined forces with the FDA and the Department of Justice to file suit in federal court to challenge – among other things – allegedly false and deceptive claims that Earth Tea cures COVID-19 and that the defendants have clinical proof to back up their...

Do you have employees or colleagues who went to DeVry ? Or perhaps you attended. You might have already gotten money back from the FTC. That’s thanks to a 2016 FTC settlement with the school over allegations that it didn’t tell the truth about how likely it was that its grads could get jobs in their field, or how much they’d earn compared to grads from other colleges. But now, you might be eligible to get your DeVry federal student loan debt...

In the old TV show Dragnet , Sergeant Joe Friday was famous for saying “Just the facts, ma’am.” But like “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca , that quotable quote was never actually said by the lead character. But when we tell you that the FTC’s just-released 2021 Consumer Sentinel Data Book gives you “just the facts,” be assured that’s what you’ll get. And one of those facts – the most commonly reported forms of fraud in 2021 – should be of...

For many money-making ventures, the only people who seem to make money are the promoters pitching the venture. That’s the lesson of decades of FTC litigation challenging unsubstantiated earnings claims. And yet despite an aggressive enforcement program, the marketplace remains rife with dubious representations. The FTC is considering a new rule to address deceptive or unfair earnings claims and has published an Advance Notice of Proposed...

Protecting consumers from illegal robocalls is a battle the FTC is waging on all fronts. Two recent actions to enforce Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) issued to VoIP service providers demonstrate that commitment. But the message of those cases extends beyond the robocall arena. Voice over Internet Protocol – VoIP – service providers facilitate the transmission of phone calls over the Internet. As the FTC has learned from other investigations...

When Congress passed the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, it created minimum dollar thresholds to limit the burden of premerger reporting. In 2000, it amended the HSR statute to require the annual adjustment of these thresholds based on the change in gross national product. As a result, reportability under the Act changes from year to year as the statutory thresholds adjust. The PNO fields many questions about the upcoming...