Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Career Education Corporation (CEC) and its subsidiaries, American InterContinental University, Inc., AIU Online, LLC, Marlin Acquisition Corporation, Colorado Technical University, Inc., and Colorado Tech., Inc. (collectively, CEC), has been ordered to pay $30 million to the FTC to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the operator used sales leads from lead generators that falsely told consumers they were affiliated with the U.S. military, and that used other unlawful tactics to generate leads. CEC’s lead generators also induced consumers to submit their information under the guise of providing job or benefits assistance. The FTC also charged that CEC’s lead generators falsely told consumers that their information would not be shared, and that both CEC and its lead generators illegally called consumers registered on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending nearly $30 million in refunds to people tricked by agents working on behalf of Career Education Corporation (currently operating as Perdoceo Education Corporation), the operator of several post-secondary schools.

Casey’s General Stores, Inc., Buck’s Intermediate Holdings, LLC, and Steven Buchanan agreed to divest retail fuel assets in local gasoline and diesel fuel markets across two states to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Casey’s proposed acquisition would violate federal antitrust law. The complaint alleges that the acquisition as proposed would harm competition for retail sale of gasoline in seven local markets in Nebraska and Iowa. Under the terms of the proposed consent order, Casey’s is required to divest six retail fuel outlets, three Casey’s outlets and three Bucky’s outlets, to Western Oil II, LLC and its affiliate Danco II, LLC within 10 days after Casey’s completes the acquisition. On June 9, 2021 the Commission announced the final consent agreement in this matter.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block Lehigh Cement Company LLC’s $151 million acquisition of rival Pennsylvania-based cement producer Keystone Cement Company, alleging the deal would harm regional competition in the market for the key ingredient used to make concrete.  The FTC alleges that the acquisition would harm competition in the market for gray portland cement in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey, reducing the number of significant competitors from four to three. The administrative trial was scheduled to begin on Nov. 2, 2021, but on June 4, 2021, the FTC announced that the parties have abandoned the transaction.

The Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint and authorized a federal court lawsuit to block Illumina’s $7.1 billion proposed acquisition of Grail—a maker of a non-invasive, early detection liquid biopsy test that can screen for multiple types of cancer in asymptomatic patients at very early stages using DNA sequencing. Illumina is the only provider of DNA sequencing that is a viable option for these multi-cancer early detection, or MCED, tests in the United States.

The complaint alleges the proposed acquisition will diminish innovation in the U.S. market for MCED tests, which could be used to detect up to 50 types of cancer. Most of these types of cancer are not screened for at all today, and the MCED test could save millions of lives around the world. The trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 24, 2021. On May 20, 2021, the FTC authorized staff to dismiss its federal court complaint for Preliminary Injunction and Temporary Restraining Order.

In September 2016, the FTC announced a court order banning the operators of an alleged mortgage relief scam that preyed upon distressed homeowners from the debt relief business. The final orders banned the defendants from selling secured or unsecured debt relief products or services, and prohibited them from misrepresenting any financial or other products or services. The orders imposed a judgment of more than $1.7 million. The FTC’s July 2014 complaint alleged the defendants claimed they could lower consumers’ mortgage payments and interest rates or prevent foreclosure, pretended to be affiliated with a government agency or consumers’ lenders or servicers, and illegally charged advance fees for these services. The FTC announced additional settlements in the case through March 2020.

In May 2021, the FTC sent payments totaling more than $147,000 in full refunds to people affected by the student loan debt relief scam.   

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc has agreed to pay $50 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the antitrust laws through a deceptive scheme to thwart lower-priced generic competition to its branded drug Suboxone. According to the complaint, before the generic versions of Suboxone tablets became available, Reckitt and its former subsidiary Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, now known as Indivior, Inc., developed a dissolvable oral film version of Suboxone and worked to shift prescriptions to this patent-protected film. Worried that doctors and patients would not want to switch to Suboxone Film, Reckitt allegedly employed a “product hopping” scheme where the company misrepresented that the film version of Suboxone was safer than Suboxone tablets because children are less likely to be accidentally exposed to the film product. Indivior has agreed to pay an additional $10 million to settle FTC charges. On May 10, 2021, the FTC announced that it sent nearly $60 million in payments to consumers who were victims of the scheme.

The operators of a deceptive newspaper subscriptions scheme are permanently banned from the direct mail marketing business under a federal court order obtained by the Federal Trade Commission.