Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

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.

Casino operator Eldorado Resorts, Inc. has agreed to divest assets to settle charges that its $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars Entertainment Corporation likely would be anticompetitive in the South Lake Tahoe area of Nevada, the Bossier City-Shreveport area of Louisiana, and the Kansas City area of Kansas and Missouri. According to the complaint, the proposed acquisition would harm competition for casino services in these three local markets, increasing the likelihood that Eldorado would unilaterally exercise market power, which in turn would lead to higher prices and reduced quality. In August 2020, the Federal Trade Commission approved a final order resolving those charges.

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.

Tri Star Energy, LLC, Hollingsworth Oil Company, Inc., C & H Properties, and Ronald L. Hollingsworth, which operate fuel outlets and convenience stores, agreed to settle FTC charges that Tri Star’s acquisition of retail outlets and related interests of Hollingsworth would violate antitrust law. The complaint alleges that the proposed acquisition would harm competition for both retail gasoline sales and retail diesel fuel sales in the two local markets of Whites Creek, Tennessee and Greenbrier, Tennessee. Under the proposed consent agreement, Tri Star would be required to divest to Cox Oil Company, Inc. retail fuel assets in Whites Creek and Greenbrier within 10 days after Tri Star completes the acquisition. On August 14, 2020, the Commission announced it had approved the final consent order in this matter.

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.

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc has agreed to pay $50 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the antitrust laws through a deceptive scheme to thwart lower-priced generic competition to its branded drug Suboxone. According to the complaint, before the generic versions of Suboxone tablets became available, Reckitt and its former subsidiary Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, now known as Indivior, Inc., developed a dissolvable oral film version of Suboxone and worked to shift prescriptions to this patent-protected film. Worried that doctors and patients would not want to switch to Suboxone Film, Reckitt allegedly employed a “product hopping” scheme where the company misrepresented that the film version of Suboxone was safer than Suboxone tablets because children are less likely to be accidentally exposed to the film product. Invidior has agreed to pay an additional $10 million to settle FTC charges.

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.

The operators of a scheme that targeted new businesses across the country with bogus threats of government fines will pay $1.2 million and be banned from sending unsolicited direct mail under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida.

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.