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Risky business

Lesley Fair
No one is sliding across the living room floor in shades lip synching to Bob Seger, but violating the FTC’s Risk-Based Pricing Rule is risky business nonetheless. That’s the message of the FTC’s $1.9 million settlement with telecom company Time Warner Cable, Inc., the first case brought under the Risk-Based Pricing Rule. Part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Risk-Based Pricing Rule has been in place for almost three years. If a company...

Un-consummated merger

Debbie Feinstein, Director, Bureau of Competition
Today, five years post-consummation, the Commission approved Polypore International, Inc.’s application to sell Microporous, a competitor it purchased in 2008. Polypore was ordered to divest the entire business it had purchased after the Commission determined that the merger had substantially lessened competition in violation of the antitrust laws. Soon, customers in need of flooded lead-acid battery separators can buy these products from a newly...

Location and value of patents

Premerger Notification Office Staff
Each year, the Premerger Notification Office answers thousands of letters, phone calls, and emails regarding the Hart-Scott-Rodino rules, giving informal advice on the potential reportability of transactions and help in completing the HSR Notification and Report Form. Recently, the PNO considered a transaction involving a U.S. company acquiring a foreign issuer with both U.S. and foreign assets. These assets included both U.S. and foreign patents...

An environmental "multi-vitamin" for engines? FTC finds ad claim hard to swallow

Lesley Fair
Green Foot Global said its EnviroTabs fuel additive was “the world’s 1st multi-vitamin for your engine.” A lawsuit filed by the FTC suggests that one primary nutrient in the environmental “multi-vitamin” was Vitamin D — for Deception. Advertised online in English and Spanish, EnviroTabs sold for about $25. The product was promoted as a quadruple threat for gear heads and tree huggers alike. “Do Your Part to Protect the Planet,” the ads said. Pop...

6 tips for keeping your green claims clean

Lesley Fair
A recent FTC law enforcement crackdown focused on allegedly deceptive biodegradability claims for plastics. Four of the cases settled and a fifth is heading to trial. Another action targeted green claims made by a company the FTC had sued before. Of course, the orders in the cases apply just to those companies, but if you’re intent on keeping your green claims clean, there’s a lot you can glean from the announcement. 1. Guidance is only a click...

Grading your degradability claims: The latest for green marketers

Lesley Fair
Golf tees, food containers, paper plates, shopping bags, additives for plastics, and rebar caps to prevent construction workers from getting impaled on the job. That’s either the strangest shopping list ever or just some of the products at the center of the FTC’s latest law enforcement effort to make sure companies’ environmental claims are truthful and substantiated. Five of the cases deal with green claims for products made with additives...

Phantom of the owe-pera

Lesley Fair
This tale of phantoms doesn’t involve crashing chandeliers and operatic crescendos. But according to a lawsuit filed by the FTC, the results were just as dramatic for consumers mistreated by debt collectors who used deceptive and threatening tactics to collect on “phantom” payday loans — bogus debts people didn’t really owe. The complaint charges Atlanta- and Cleveland-based Pinnacle Payment Services, LLC and a chorus of corporate officers and...

How Aaron's erred: What your business should take from the latest spycam case

Lesley Fair
Remember the cases the FTC announced last year against a software developer and rent-to-own stores that secretly monitored people in their homes? Unbeknownst to consumers, computers came installed with a program called PC Rental Agent. When the software was in “Detective Mode,” companies could remotely activate the camera — meaning they were surreptitiously snapping, transmitting, and storing pictures of anything in the range of the webcam. Well...

Made in USA? Avoiding a Yankee Doodle Don't

Lesley Fair
There are lots of nifty phone accessories, bottle holders, tow straps, pet items, and lanyards out there. So a label that says the product is Made in the USA may help make the decision for some consumers. When it bears the American flag and says “TRULY MADE IN THE USA,” that just might seal the deal. But according to an FTC lawsuit, a lot of the “Made in the USA” merchandise touted by Logan, Utah-based E.K. Ekcessories wasn’t really made in the...

DONT VIOL8 FDCPA. K? THX

Lesley Fair
If we were sending a text about the FTC’s case against Glendale, California, based debt collector National Attorney Collection Services, that might be all we could convey, given space limitations. That abbreviated headline illustrates just one of the technological challenges posed when using new means of communication. But regardless of the method debt collectors choose when contacting people who owe money, the consumer protections of the Fair...
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