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The final chapter in the FTC’s “Your Baby Can Read!” case

Lesley Fair
With a product name like “Your Baby Can Read!” – exclamation point in the original – it didn’t take long for consumers to figure out what the marketers were promising. The company’s massive ad campaign featured 14-month-olds mastering vocabulary flashcards, two-year-olds reading books, and an array of charts, graphs, and studies purporting to show that Your Baby Can Read! was scientifically proven to work. The FTC filed suit in 2012, citing...

Have a good plan for HSR compliance

Dan Ducore, Bureau of Competition
Our recent civil penalty action involving Berkshire Hathaway’s failure to file the required Hart-Scott-Rodino notification is a reminder to investors to be alert to common filing mistakes. It is also a reminder that every investor—companies and individuals alike—needs to have a program in place to ensure compliance with HSR filing obligations. In a nutshell, Berkshire Hathaway acquired voting securities of USG Corporation in December 2013 through...

David Mamet didn’t write the dialogue in this $40 million court order. It just sounds that way.

Lesley Fair
"A-B-C. Always be closing." "As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired." "These are the new leads. The Glengarry leads. To you, they're gold. But you don't get them. Why? Because they're for closers." Not much compares to the crackling dialogue of a David Mamet play. But one worthy contender is an order by a federal judge in Atlanta entering a compensatory sanction...

Debt collection double feature

Lesley Fair
The 2011 science fiction movie “The Adjustment Bureau” dealt with a dystopian future (Is there any other kind in sci-fi movies?) where mysterious forces plot against individuals. But for many consumers, Regional Adjustment Bureau, a Memphis-based debt collector, made their day-to-day reality just as dystopic. An FTC lawsuit against the company – and a separate action against Credit Smart, LLC, headquartered in Suffolk County, New York – reminds...

Acc-cen-tuate the negative?

Lesley Fair
Acc-cen-tuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative. And don't mess with Mr. In-Between. That's how the catchy Bing Crosby-Andrews Sisters number went in the 40s. When it comes to negative options now, the message for marketers is to explain things positively. The FTC has a process in place for reviewing rules and guides. Think of it as regulatory spring cleaning. We consider how times or technology have changed, and...

How to avoid common HSR filing mistakes on affidavits and notice letters

Premerger Notification Staff, Bureau of Competition
The PNO handles Hart-Scott-Rodino Premerger Notification Filings for well over a thousand transactions each year. When you submit an HSR Form with all the required information, the PNO can quickly review the filing, and if necessary, forward it to the investigative staff who will focus on determining whether the acquisition presents competitive issues that warrant further review. But when filings contain mistakes, the PNO review process can get...

Keep your Made in USA claims red, white, and true

Lesley Fair
There sure are a lot of seals out there. The British singer. The Navy special ops unit. The aquatic mammal. But the seals that matter to the FTC are certifications that convey representations consumers might not be able to evaluate for themselves. If your company makes Made in the USA claims, you’ll want to “Get Closer.” (And yes, that was a hit by 70s folk rockers, Seals and Crofts.) Ohio-based Made in the USA Brand markets a U.S.-origin seal...

Putting the “mod” in order modification

Kenneth Libby, Bureau of Competition
Back in 1998, the must-have toy was a Furby, and if you were a parent with a kid of a certain age, you had to find one. In those days, Toys “R” Us was the nation’s largest toy retailer, and the company attracted antitrust attention when it announced that it would stop carrying toys made by any manufacturer that sold the same toys to discount club stores, such as Costco. That policy would have prevented nearby club stores from carrying the same...

In-app and unapproved: FTC says Amazon charged parents' accounts without their OK

Lesley Fair
If there’s one theme that runs through decades of FTC law, it’s that companies need consumers’ informed consent to bill their accounts. That was true in the early days of mail order. It carried through to online shopping. And it remains the law for mobile devices, including in-app purchases. The FTC’s lawsuit against Amazon alleges the company didn’t honor that elementary principle. As a result, the FTC says thousands of parents were billed for...

Who profits from cramming? FTC challenges T-Mobile's role in bogus billing

Lesley Fair
It was an all-too-common occurrence. People’s mobile phone bills included unexplained – and unauthorized – monthly charges. It’s called cramming and the FTC has brought a series of cases against companies that had fees for ringtones, horoscopes, “love tips,” etc., placed on cell phone bills without consumers’ consent. The crammers took a chunk of the cash, but you might be surprised to learn who the FTC says pocketed a 35-40% piece of the action...
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