Tag: Consumer Protection

In February 2023, the FTC took action against a marketer of vitamins and other supplements called The Bountiful Company for abusing a feature of Amazon.com to deceive consumers into thinking that its newly introduced supplements had more product ratings and reviews, higher average ratings, and “#1 Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” badges. The case against Bountiful marks the FTC’s first law enforcement challenging “review hijacking,” in which a marketer steals or repurposes reviews of another product. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in consumer redress to settle the FTC’s complaint. In March 2024, the Commission announced it was sending more than $527,000 to impacted consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission has stopped Mission Hills Federal, a student loan debt relief scheme, alleging it bilked more than $23 million from thousands of consumers with false claims that it would service and pay down their student loans. After the FTC filed a complaint seeking to end the deceptive practices, a federal court temporarily halted the scheme and froze its assets. The FTC filed an amended complaint on August 27, 2019, adding Labiba Velazquez as an alleged defendant. On July 20, 2020, the court granted final summary judgment.

In June 2021, the defendants appealed the District Court’s granting of summary judgment. In June 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision, rejecting the defendants’ arguments and affirmed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment, ruling in favor of the FTC. In March 2024, the FTC sent more than $4.1 million in refunds to consumers harmed by the defendants.