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Caribbean cruises, jet ski outings, trips to Disneyworld, tickets to sporting events and concerts, and even dating service subscriptions. You’d expect to see that on reruns of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” What you wouldn’t expect is that they were paid for by donations people made to cancer charities. That’s what the FTC and 58 law enforcement partners from every state and the District of Columbia allege in a lawsuit filed against four...

Consumers frequently contact the Bureau of Competition to alert us that the cost of a prescription drug suddenly spiked up, and ask if the FTC can take antitrust action to bring the price back down. The answer in a nutshell is that it depends on the reason for the price change. We’ve examined this issue a number of times and often found that price changes (up or down) are due to normal market forces and thus do not present an antitrust issue. One...

A royal flush? More like a royal pain for consumers who trusted claims that moist flushable wipes manufactured by trade supplier Nice-Pak were safe for home plumbing systems. According to an FTC complaint, the wipes were made of a non-woven fabric that didn’t break down as quickly and easily as advertised, rendering that “flushable” claim a pipe dream – or maybe a pipe nightmare if your sewer or septic system got clogged as a result. Suffice it...

Everyone harbors a dark secret – a forbidden mystery concealed behind closed doors. Three cases just filed by the FTC pull back the curtain on one of those taboos: The efforts people make to hide the fact they’re going gray. The marketers of three dietary supplements – Get Away Grey, Go Away Gray, and Grey Defence – all claimed their products could stop hair from turning gray. The purported active ingredient was an enzyme called catalase, which...

A fundamental principle of competition is that consumers – not regulation – should determine what they buy and how they buy it. Consumers may benefit from the ability to buy cars directly from manufacturers – whether they are shopping for luxury cars or economy vehicles. The same competition principles should apply in either case. For several years now, there have been reports of the challenges faced by Tesla Motors in selling its luxury electric...

By now, it shouldn’t be news. Using illegal spam and bogus news sites to convey false claims for diet products is bound to attract FTC attention. Oh, and did we mention the phony representation that the products were endorsed by Oprah and the people on the TV show "The Doctors"? Those are just some of the allegations in a case the FTC has filed against Glendale, California-based Sale Slash, Purists Choice, Artur Babayan, and Vahe Haroutounian...

Figure 1 Identifying customers that visit multiple retail locations for the same store (Source: Fast Company, “ Here’s What Brick-And-Mortar Stores See When They Track You”) Last week, the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Nomi Technologies, a retail tracking firm that monitors consumers’ movements through stores, for failing to adhere to their opt-out promises. Nomi's Listen Service tracks consumers by monitoring the location of their...

As the name suggests, Green Tree Servicing was supposed to service homeowners’ mortgages by collecting and crediting monthly payments. But according to a $63 million settlement announced by the FTC and CFPB, rather than service, Green Tree gave many homeowners the business. Mortgages are often transferred during the life of a loan, so consumers may find themselves locked in a relationship with a servicer they didn’t select – and with no...

If you’re active in affiliate marketing, a summary judgment ruling by a United States District Court offers additional support for the conclusion that “Who, me?” isn’t likely to be a persuasive defense to allegations of deception. As a result of the holding, affiliate marketing network LeadClick Media and its parent company, CoreLogic, have to turn over a total of $11.9 million in ill-gotten gains. A few years ago, you couldn’t push ENTER without...

When playing hide and seek as a child, remember those kids who always seemed to find that hidden crawl space or cranny? Whatever happened to them? Let’s hope they didn’t grow up to go into advertising since current marketing methods offer lots of ways for companies to hide important terms and conditions. The FTC's proposed settlement with Network Solutions illustrates a few examples. For individuals and businesses in the market for web hosting...