Tag: Consumer Protection

In June 2020, the marketers of a low-level light therapy device (LLLT) called Willow Curve agreed to stop making allegedly deceptive claims that the device treats chronic, severe pain and associated inflammation, under a settlement with the FTC. 

In a complaint filed in federal court the FTC alleged that the marketers of Willow Curve promoted the device nationwide since 2014, touting it as a “smart” device that is “clinically proven,” even though they lack scientific evidence to support these claims. The order settling the complaint also requires two defendants to pay $200,000 each to the Commission. In August 2021, the FTC sent refunds totaling more than $350,000 to defrauded consumers.

The operators of a business coaching scheme will pay at least $1.2 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they targeted people who were trying to start new businesses online and used deception to sell them bogus marketing products and services.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Position Gurus and Top Shelf Ecommerce, and their owners Aaron Poysky, Stacy Griego and Samuel Cohen Brown, targeted consumers who were looking for ways to make money by starting retail businesses on the Internet. The defendants found many of their targets by purchasing consumers’ contact information from other online business coaching operations that had already deceived the targets. In August 2021, the FTC sent refunds totaling more than $1.5 million to defrauded consumers.
 

Globex Telecom, Inc. and an affiliated company will pay a total of $1.9 million to settle Federal Trade Commission and State of Ohio charges that they facilitated a scheme that peddled bogus credit card interest rate relief, illegally charging consumers millions of dollars. The settlement marks the end of the FTC’s first consumer protection case against a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider.

The FTC and Ohio alleged that Globex provided a company called Educare Centre Services with the means to make calls to U.S. consumers, including illegal robocalls, to market Educare’s phony credit card interest rate reduction services.

The FTC and Ohio charged that both Globex and Educare were controlled by Mohammed Souheil, Globex’s former CEO and president, who was named in the lawsuit along with a number of other corporations and individuals.

Kuuhuub Inc., Kuu Hubb Oy and Recolor Oy settled FTC allegations that they violated a children’s privacy law by collecting and disclosing personal information about children who used the app without notifying their parents and obtaining their consent.