Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

A Rhode Island company and its owner will be permanently prohibited from misrepresenting they are affiliated with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as part of a settlement resolving Federal Trade Commission charges they misled consumers in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Ponte Investments, LLC, and its owner John C. Ponte were charged by the FTC in April 2020 with misleading small businesses to think they had an affiliation with the SBA and could offer companies access to the coronavirus relief programs administered by the agency.

A Florida-based company that has promoted its Isoprex supplement to older adults as a miracle cure for pain and joint inflammation has agreed to a settlement with the FTC that bars the company from continuing to make its unproven claims. In September 2020, the FTC announced it was sending refunds totaling more than $76,000 to consumers who bought the deceptively marketed product.

Approximately $147 million is being mailed to 33,000 consumers in the second distribution of refunds resulting from the law enforcement actions brought against Western Union by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Affected consumers are receiving compensation for 100 percent of their verified losses. This is the second refund distribution resulting from the agencies’ actions against Western Union. DOJ is still reviewing petitions from consumers who were harmed by Western Union’s practices, and will be providing opportunities for consumers who have not yet applied for refunds to file claims.

In July 2020, the FTC required global suppliers of animal products, Elanco Animal Health, Inc. and Bayer Animal Health GmbH, to divest three animal health products to settle charges that Elanco’s proposed $7.6 billion acquisition of Bayer would likely be anticompetitive in those markets. On Sept. 11, 2020, the Commission announced the final consent agreement in this matter.

In April 2019, the FTC announced that a federal district court judge ordered Srinubabu Gedela and his companies to pay more than $50.1 million to resolve FTC charges that they made deceptive claims about the nature of their conferences and publications, and hid steep publication fees. The court ruling resolved a 2016 Commission complaint alleging that Gedela and the companies falsely advertised online scientific and medical academic journals and international conferences, and deceptively claimed the journals provided authors with rigorous peer review and editorial boards comprised of prominent academics.

Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission announced in March 2020, the marketers of an electrical nerve stimulation device called Quell have agreed to pay $4 million and stop making deceptive claims that the device treats pain throughout the body when placed below the knee. They also will stop claiming the device’s efficacy is clinically proven and that it has been cleared by the FDA to treat pain throughout the body. In early September 2020, the FTC announced it was returning almost $3.9 million to defrauded consumers.

At the FTC’s request, in May 2019 a U.S. district court in Florida granted summary judgment against two individuals, approved six settlement agreements involving 11 defendants, and entered a default judgment against the remaining seven defendants, officially ending the massive Pointbreak Media robocall scheme. In August 2020, the FTC returned more than $70,000 to consumers defrauded through the scheme.

The marketer of a scheme to make money on Amazon, and his companies, are banned from marketing and selling business opportunities and business coaching services under a settlement with the FTC. The settlement order against Jeffrey A. Gomez (aka Jeffrey Adams), Adams Consulting LLC, and Global Marketing Services L.L.C. also requires them to surrender funds and assets for consumer redress. In August 2020, the FTC returned more than $9.1 million to consumers defrauded through the scheme.

The Federal Trade Commission issued an administrative complaint alleging that Benco, Henry Schein and Patterson, the nation's three largest dental supply companies, violated U.S. antitrust laws by conspiring to refuse to provide discounts to or otherwise serve buying groups representing dental practitioners. These buying groups sought lower prices for dental supplies and equipment on behalf of solo and small-group dental practices seeking to gain discounts by aggregating and leveraging the collective purchasing power and bargaining skills of the individual practices. The complaint also alleges an FTC Act Section 5 violation against Benco for inviting a fourth competing distributor to join the conspiracy.

The Federal Trade Commission sued SuperTherm, Inc., and its principals Roberto Guerra, and Susana Guerra, alleging they make false or unsubstantiated R-value claims about their architectural coatings products. In July 2020, the FTC sued four companies that sell paint products used to coat buildings and homes, alleging that they deceived consumers about their products’ insulation and energy-savings capabilities. In complaints filed in federal court, the FTC charged that the companies falsely overstated the R-value ratings of the coatings, making deceptive statements about heat flow and insulating power.

The Federal Trade Commission sued F & G International Group Holdings, LLC, FG International, LLC, and their principal J. Glenn Davis, alleging they make false or unsubstantiated R-value claims about their architectural coatings products. In July 2020, the FTC sued four companies that sell paint products used to coat buildings and homes, alleging that they deceived consumers about their products’ insulation and energy-savings capabilities. In complaints filed in federal court, the FTC charged that the companies falsely overstated the R-value ratings of the coatings, making deceptive statements about heat flow and insulating power.

Announced in June 2019 as part of a crackdown on illegal robocalls against operations around the country responsible for more than one billion calls, the FTC’s complaint against six corporate and three individual defendants jointly doing business as Second Choice Horizon and CSG Solutions, alleges Raymond Gonzalez, Carlos S. Guerrero, and Joshua Hernandez ran a maze of interrelated operations that used illegal robocalls to contact financially distressed consumers with offers of bogus credit card interest rate reduction services. The FTC contends many of the consumers targeted were seniors. In July 2020, the FTC announced the defendants had settled the Commission’s complaint, and are banned from telemarketing and selling debt relief services.

Home products and kitchen wares company Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has agreed to stop making false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims that all of its Goldtouch Bakeware products, its Rejuvenation-branded products, and Pottery Barn Teen and Pottery Barn Kids-branded upholstered furniture products are all or virtually all made in the United States. On July 16, 2020, the Commission announced the final consent order in this matter.

Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., settled Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company misled consumers about its participation in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework. 

In December 2018, the operators of a student loan debt relief scheme agreed to pay approximately $1.3 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they pretended to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education or with consumers’ loan servicers, and tricked consumers into believing that illegal upfront fees were being used to pay off their student loans. In July 2020, the FTC announced it was mailing checks totaling more than $1 million to individuals who lost money to the scheme.

In May 2020, the Commission accepted for public comment a proposed consent agreement to resolve allegations that Miniclip S.A. violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by misrepresenting its status in a Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) safe harbor program.

Retail fuel station and convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and its affiliate CrossAmerica Partners LP agreed to divest 10 fuel stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that ACT’s proposed acquisition of Holiday Companies would violate federal antitrust law. The FTC later alleged that they violated a 2018 order requiring divestitures of 10 retail fuel stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin to Commission-approved buyers no later than June 15, 2018. They agreed to pay a $3.5 million civil penalty to the FTC to settle the allegations.