Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Following a public comment period, the FTC has approved a final order settling charges against a Texas-based marketer and seller of intravenously injected therapy products (IV Cocktails) who allegedly made a range of deceptive and unsupported health claims about their ability to treat serious diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and congestive heart failure.

On 2/13/2008, the Commission filed a complaint in federal district court charging Cephalon, Inc. with preventing competition to its branded drug Provigil. The conduct under challenge includes paying four firms to refrain from selling generic versions of Provigil until 2012. Cephalon’s anticompetitive scheme, according to the Commission, denies patients access to lower-cost, generic versions of Provigil and forces consumers and other purchasers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year more for Provigil. According to the complaint, Cephalon entered into agreements with four generic drug manufacturers that each planned to sell a generic version of Provigil. Each of these companies had challenged the only remaining patent covering Provigil, one relating to the size of particles used in the product. The complaint charges that Cephalon was able to induce each of the generic companies to abandon its patent challenge and agree to refrain from selling a generic version of Provigil until 2012 by agreeing to pay the companies a total amount in excess of $200 million. In so doing, Cephalon achieved a result that assertion of its patent rights alone could not. In 2008, this case was transferred from the District Court of District of Columbia to the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

FTC Bureau of Competition Director Bruce Hoffman issued the following statement regarding the U.S. District Court ruling today that granted the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction in the proposed merger of Tronox Limited and Cristal. The companies are top suppliers in the United States and Canada of chloride process titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment used in paints, industrial coatings, plastic and paper:

Following a public comment period, the FTC has approved two final orders settling allegations that Creaxion Corporation, Inside Publications, LLC, and their respective principals misrepresented that paid endorsements were independent consumer opinions and that commercial advertising was independent journalistic content.

The FTC is mailing 104,612 checks totaling nearly $3.5 million to people who bought weight-loss supplements marketed by Maine-based sellers Direct Alternatives and Original Organics, LLC. Affected consumers will receive their refund checks, which average $33.12, within the next week. The FTC and the Maine AG’s Office obtained the money in the settlement of two related cases against these sellers and a marketing company that created and disseminated advertisements for Direct Alternative’s weight-loss products.

Following a public comment period, the FTC has approved two final orders settling allegations that Creaxion Corporation, Inside Publications, LLC, and their respective principals misrepresented that paid endorsements were independent consumer opinions and that commercial advertising was independent journalistic content.

10 Companies and 10 individuals settled Federal Trade Commission allegations that their deceptive and unfair tactics violated the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act. The action is part of the FTC's continuing crackdown on all players involved in phantom debt schemes, including those who sell fake debt portfolios and those who harass consumers to collect the phony debt. 

The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $1 million to 1,966 consumers who were harmed by a debt collection scheme that conned consumers into paying debts they did not owe. The defendants used several names including GAFS Group, Global Mediation Group, and Mediation Services.

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Express Mart would violate federal antitrust law.

Soundboard Association sued the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the agency violated the APA by not issuing the regulation following notice-and-comment rulemaking, and that it was infringing on telemarketing companies' First Amendment rights.

The FTC charged that Boral Ltd. and LaFarge SA violated antitrust laws by establishing a joint venture, Monier Lifetile LLC, that combined their concrete roofing tile (CRT) manufacturing divisions. Boral and LaFarge are the two largest producers of CRT in the United States. To settle FTC charges that the joint venture would likely substantially reduce competition in the market for CRT, Monier Lifetile LLC agreed to sell production facilities in Arizona, California and Florida to CRH PLC.

In December 2018, the Federal Trade Commission announced that the operators of Florida-based student loan debt relief scheme Student Debt Doctor are banned from the debt relief business as part of agreements settling allegations that they collected illegal upfront fees and falsely promised to help some consumers enroll in government programs that would reduce or forgive their student loan debt. In June 2022, the agency announced that it is sending 22,817 checks totaling more than $2 million to borrowers who lost money to the scheme.

The Federal Trade Commission, along with law enforcement officials and charity regulators from 70 offices in every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico, announced more than 100 actions and a consumer education initiative in “Operation Donate with Honor,” a crackdown on fraudulent charities that con consumers by falsely promising their donations will help veterans and servicemembers.