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Business Blog

FTC staff sends warranty warnings

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When the screen goes blue And the car breaks down And the smartphone keeps rebooting eternally Consumers won ’ t be afraid No, they won ’ t be afraid Just as long as you stand by your warranty. With...
Business Blog

“Amazing Wealth System” not so amazing, alleges the FTC

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An FTC lawsuit alleges that money-making claims made by a related group of companies and individuals for their Amazing Wealth System are “amazing” all right – if by “amazing” you mean “not credible”...
Business Blog

1,000 posts, but who’s counting? (We are, actually.)

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When the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection started the Business Blog in 2010, we promised readers “a minimum of ho-hum, a maximum of how-to, and as little yadda yadda yadda as a legal website can...
Business Blog

Insights into the FTC’s Contact Lens Rule

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The FTC is eyeing its Contact Lens Rule and has announced the agenda for a March 7, 2018, workshop, The Contact Lens Rule and the Evolving Contact Lens Marketplace . In place since 2004, the Contact...
Business Blog

Talent search firm not ready for its COPPA close-up

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Movie legend has it that screen siren Lana Turner was discovered as a teen at Schwab’s Drugstore. The millions of people who signed up for online talent search network Explore Talent were also looking...
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

FTC staff answers questions about MLMs

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Multi-level marketers sell a wide variety of products and services and they structure their companies in different ways. But there’s a lodestar that all industry members can use to navigate through...
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

How an “invention promotion” outfit demoted the truth

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It sounds like there was some “inventing” going on at Florida-based invention promotion firm World Patent Marketing, but a Preliminary Injunction in a case brought by the FTC suggests it wasn’t the...
Business Blog

Billed for office supplies you didn’t order? Don’t pay!

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It typically started with a schmoozy call to an unsuspecting small business or nonprofit. Sometimes the caller claimed to be “confirming” an existing order, “verifying” an address, or offering a “free...
Business Blog

FTC blows the whistle on business coaching program

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Rockne, Lombardi, Landry, Shula. Behind every sports dynasty, there’s a legendary coach. But according to the FTC , marketers of “business coaching” services took consumers for millions by using...
Business Blog

BOTS Act: That’s the ticket!

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It used to be a rite of passage: spending the night in a line outside the box office to score tickets to the Stones, Springsteen, or [insert your favorite group here]. The convenience of internet...