Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The companies that operate the Hopper travel apps have agreed to pay $35 million and will be prohibited from deceiving consumers about fees to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s allegations that they unfairly charged consumers hidden fees and misrepresented the total prices consumers would pay and the benefits of the companies’ VIP Support and Price Freeze services.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that despite its “no hidden fees” promises, Canadian company Hopper Inc. and its Massachusetts-based subsidiary Hopper (USA) Inc., unfairly charged users without their consent for “Tip” and VIP Support fees that the company claimed were optional yet were hidden and pre-selected for consumers.

Amazon will pay $2.25 million in civil penalties to settle FTC allegations that the online retail giant knowingly violated the 609(e) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act by refusing to provide transaction records to consumers whose personal information was used by identity thieves to commit fraud.

The FTC will prohibit data broker Kochava and its subsidiary from selling, sharing or disclosing sensitive location data without consumer consent to settle allegations the companies sold location data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices that could be used to trace the movements of individuals.

The FTC is requiring Aurobindo Pharma Limited to divest four different generic drug products to complete its $250 million acquisition of Lannett Company Inc.

The Federal Trade Commission, along with Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, today filed a lawsuit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), alleging the organization has provided the means for medical providers to make false and unsubstantiated claims to parents in order to sell pediatric medical transition services.

At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court has temporarily halted a sprawling enterprise of deceptive subscription schemes—comprised of 15 corporations and eight individuals—from continuing to deceive consumers with hidden costs and recurring charges, while failing to provide simple mechanisms to cancel subscriptions. 

The FTC sued multilevel marketer Amare Global Holdings Inc. and three of its principals for misrepresenting to parents and other consumers that its dietary supplements marketed for children and adults could treat or cure health conditions such as depression, anxiety and ADHD, and for misleading its seller recruits about their potential earnings as “brand partners.” 

The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to hold in contempt dietary supplement provider Amare Global Holdings as well as its former Chief Science Officer Shawn Talbott and two other individuals over allegations they violated an FTC order in the Window Rock case that banned Talbott and those who work with him from making false, deceptive or unsubstantiated health claims.

The Federal Trade Commission took action to protect Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families by requiring Sevita Health (Sevita) to divest more than 100 healthcare facilities to resolve antitrust concerns surrounding its proposed $835 million acquisition of BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.’s (BrightSpring) community living business.

Under the FTC’s proposed consent order, Sevita will be required to divest 128 intermediate care facilities (ICFs), which provide IDD services, and other assets such as day-training programs. The divested facilities—which are in Indiana, Louisiana, and Texas—will be acquired by Dungarvin Group, Inc. (Dungarvin), an experienced and well-regarded operator of ICFs.

On June 10, 2026, the FTC finalized the consent order in this matter. 

The Federal Trade Commission and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) are taking action against various companies doing business as Home Matters USA, Academy Home Services, Atlantic Pacific Service Group, and Golden Home Services America, and the owners of the companies, Dominic Ahiga and Roger Scott Dyer, for operating a sham mortgage relief operation that misled consumers and cost them millions. In the first case brought jointly by the two agencies, the FTC and DFPI allege that the companies charged consumers thousands of dollars with false promises they would negotiate with consumers’ mortgage lenders to alter their loans, at times even representing they were affiliated with government COVID-19 relief programs. A federal court has temporarily shut down the operation and frozen the assets of the defendants in the case.

The court’s orders bar the individuals and their companies from directly or indirectly engaging in telemarketing, debt relief services, and making any misrepresentations or unsubstantiated claims about any product or service.

The Federal Trade Commission will require education technology provider Illuminate Education, Inc. to implement a data security program and delete unnecessary data to settle allegations that the company’s data security failures led to a major data breach.

The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Nevada are taking action to stop a wide-ranging investment training and business venture scam that has bilked consumers out of more than $1.2 billion. According to the complaint filed by the FTC and the Nevada Attorney General, the scam currently operates as IYOVIA and has also used the brand names IM Mastery Academy, iMarketsLive, and IM Academy (collectively, “IML”).

On Aug. 7, 2025, the FTC announced that three of the defendants, Global Dynasty Network, LLC, Jason Brown, and Matthew Rosa, agreed to a settlement of the allegations.

In August 2025, a U.S. District Court judge in Nevada has issued a preliminary injunction against the three companies that executed the IM Mastery Academy schemes and the two individuals who have led it, halting their activities and requiring them to preserve their assets.

Following settlements with several other defendants, in September 2025, the FTC announced proposed settlements with defendants Alex Morton and Brandon Boyd. 

In May 2026, the FTC announced settlements with five individual and corporate IM Mastery Academy defendants, including ringleaders Chris and Isis Terry.

The Federal Trade Commission took action to protect American patients from higher outpatient surgery costs by requiring national nonprofit health system Ascension Health Alliance (Ascension) to divest several surgery center facilities to complete its proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg LLC.