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The marketers behind a purported money-making promotion called Sellers Playbook appear to have skipped the chapter about complying with federal and state consumer protection laws. That’s the allegation in a complaint filed by the FTC and the Minnesota Attorney General. In addition, it’s the FTC’s first case charging violations of the Consumer Review Fairness Act. The roots of the allegations go back to another venture sued by the FTC earlier this...

Whether it’s a slimmer waist or an imaginary yacht superimposed in the background, we’re all familiar with the dramatic changes that retouching can make to a photo. A lawsuit the FTC has filed against Tate’s Auto Group and related companies alleges – among other things – that the defendants substantial ly “retouch ed” the financial circumstances of customers trying to finance cars. The defendants are four affiliated auto dealers in New Mexico and...

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. But the same can’t be said for a mailer that looks like an official invoice. It could be an “o- fishy-al” offer that deceptively mimics the appearance of a government document. A case filed by the FTC and the Florida Attorney General challenges the practice of sending mailers that allegedly create the false impression that small businesses are required to buy labor regulation...

July is Military Consumer Month, so it’s the perfect time to consider the unique challenges of America’s military members and their families. Among the many sacrifices made by military families are frequent relocations, typically every 2 or 3 years. Moving to a new duty station often means that the member’s spouse must find a new job in a new state. For spouses who need a state-issued license to work, each move can involve paperwork, fees, and...

This will be the day That you will hear me say Read the F-R-N Without delay. That’s not quite how Prince opened his 1991 classic “Diamonds and Pearls.” But if your company sells diamonds and pearls – or is otherwise involved in the jewelry business – you need to know about a Federal Register Notice announcing final revisions to what are now called the FTC’s Jewelry Guides. (They d on’t have a cryptic symbol, but we like to think of them as the C...

There isn’t an actual procedure called an honest-ectomy. But when you hear allegations about scammers who solicit donations for veterans’ charities and then pocket the contributions, you’ve got to wonder. The FTC, 54 Attorneys General from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and 16 additional state agencies that oversee charities have joined forces to announce Operation Donate with Honor – a coordinated...

So we went used car shopping recently – the FTC and 12 other law enforcement agencies. We visited 94 dealerships in 20 cities across the country. Yes, we saw some low-mileage cream puffs, but that’s not what we were in the market for. We wanted to see if dealerships were displaying the revised Buyers Guide required as of January 28, 2018. The results proved interesting. According to the FTC’s Used Car Rule, dealers must display the Buyers Guide...

When the legendary Patti Page sang, “How much is that doggie in the window?” she couldn’t have guessed that six decades later, the answer might depend on whether a consumer buys or leases a pet. Today, when purebred and designer pets can fetch prices in the thousands of dollars, many pet stores and breeders offer customers the option of taking home – right away – the pets that tug at their heartstrings, even if the price is more than they can...

The scheme started with a Craigslist ad for a rental property and ended with a $5.2 million judgment for violations of the FTC Act, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Free Annual File Disclosures Rule. For a deep dive into FTC fundamentals, read the opinion granting the FTC’s Motion for Summary Judgment against Credit Bureau Center. For consumers browsing Craigslist, ads for a rental apartment in a...

Like the three sides of a triangle, ROSCA – the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act – has three basic compliance requirements for online sellers who enroll consumers in continuity plans, often known as negative options. The law bans online negative options unless the seller: 1) clearly discloses all materia l terms of the deal before obtaining a consumer’s billing information; 2) gets the consumer’s express informed consent before making the...