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Business Blog

A lease on a leash? Pet stores are leasing pets

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When the legendary Patti Page sang, “How much is that doggie in the window?” she couldn’t have guessed that six decades later, the answer might depend on whether a consumer buys or leases a pet. Today...
Business Blog

District court rules on redress, ROSCA, and disclosures

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The scheme started with a Craigslist ad for a rental property and ended with a $5.2 million judgment for violations of the FTC Act, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, the Fair Credit...
Business Blog

Cryptocurrency webcast starts soon

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The Cubs are in Los Angeles and the White Sox have the day off, but there’s still a lot happening in Chicago today. The FTC’s workshop Decrypting Cryptocurrency Scams is set to start at 1:00 PM...
Business Blog

Credit card processing “deals” may be scams

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If you’re in a small business, you probably need a way for people to pay you – and ways to lower your costs. Scammers have been working both of those angles, promising businesses that they can save on...
Business Blog

Decrypting cryptocurrency scams: What’s on the agenda?

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It’s unfortunate, but it happens. First came cryptocurrency. Then came the cryptocurrency crooks. In the emerging cryptocurrency marketplace, what needs to be done to protect consumers from scams...
Business Blog

Western Union refund application deadline is May 31st

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Chances are that people you know were duped by scammers and wired the money via Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017. This Thursday, May 31st, is the deadline for consumers to...
Business Blog

So You Received a CID: FAQs for Small Businesses

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So you’ve received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the Federal Trade Commission related to a consumer protection matter. Now what? We appreciate that it can be daunting for any company –...
Business Blog

Refundamentals: How the FTC returns billions to consumers

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You’ve seen the sentence in FTC news releases or blog posts: “The order includes a $__ million financial remedy.” So how do provisions like that translate into real help for real consumers? That’s the...
Business Blog

2017: The consumer protection year in review

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One Direction had a hit with a song called “18,” but the FTC’s recent law enforcement and policy initiatives suggest that the agency will continue to pursue many directions in its efforts to protect...
Business Blog

Mentioning unmentionables

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When it comes to using online negative options to sell unmentionables (or anything else), there are some material terms and conditions that marketers need to clearly mention. That’s the brief but...
Business Blog

Advertisers should be uneasy about unproven disease claims

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The “before” photo showed a silver-haired lady in a wheelchair with a hand on her furrowed brow. “24 hours after” and she’s smiling and knitting on the sofa, thanks to a dietary supplement proven in a...
Business Blog

Trial and error

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Imagine a series of promotions that involve pain relief promises, cognition claims, endorsements, 30-minute radio ads, “risk-free” money-back guarantees, “free” trial offers, negative options...
Business Blog

Edge of ‘17

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“ Just like the white winged dove sings a song,” you can count on the BCP Business Blog to celebrate the “Edge of Seventeen” – 2017, of course – with a recap of in-case-you-missed-it developments from...