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Every year the FTC brings hundreds of cases against individuals and companies for violating consumer protection and competition laws that the agency enforces. These cases can involve fraud, scams, identity theft, false advertising, privacy violations, anti-competitive behavior and more. The Legal Library has detailed information about cases we have brought in federal court or through our internal administrative process, called an adjudicative proceeding.
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.
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.
HyperBeard, a developer of apps that are popular with children has agreed to pay $150,000 and to delete personal information it illegally collected from children under 13 to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations. In a complaint filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, the Commission alleges that HyperBeard, Inc. violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule) by allowing third-party ad networks to collect personal information in the form of persistent identifiers to track users of the company’s child-directed apps, without notifying parents or obtaining verifiable parental consent. The ad networks used the identifiers to target ads to children using HyperBeard’s apps.
A payment processor that allegedly ignored clear warning signs its client was operating an unlawful business coaching and investment scheme will be barred from processing payments in the business coaching field under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
According to the FTC’s complaint against California-based QualPay, the company for years processed payments for MOBE, a scheme the FTC alleged charged consumers hundreds of millions of dollars for worthless business coaching products, and that Qualpay ignored numerous signs that MOBE was a fraudulent business.
In March 2020, Michigan-based Federal-Mogul Motorparts LLC (Federal-Mogul) agreed to settle an FTC administrative complaint alleging that it made unsubstantiated claims that its aftermarket Wagner OEX brake pads could stop a vehicle in a shorter distance in an emergency and reduce the risk of collisions, as compared to competitors’ brake pads. The proposed order resolving the FTC’s complaint prohibits Federal-Mogul from making such claims in the future, unless they are true and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence.
The Federal Trade Commission authorized an action to block Evonik Industries AG’s proposed $625 million acquisition of PeroxyChem Holding Company, alleging the merger of the chemical companies would substantially reduce competition in the Pacific Northwest and the Southern and Central United States for the production and sale of hydrogen peroxide, a commodity chemical used for oxidation, disinfection, and bleaching.
The Federal Trade Commission is sending refunds totaling more than $6.9 million to small businesses, non-profits, and government agencies targeted by an office supply telemarketing scam that charged them for products they did not order. The FTC alleged that defendants’ victims included child care centers, schools, and police and fire departments.
A group of affiliate marketers who lured consumers into a business coaching and investment scheme known as My Online Business Education (MOBE) will surrender millions of dollars in assets to settle Federal Trade Commission charges.
A group of affiliate marketers who lured consumers into a business coaching and investment scheme known as My Online Business Education (MOBE) will surrender millions of dollars in assets to settle Federal Trade Commission charges.
The Federal Trade Commission authorized an action to block Evonik Industries AG’s proposed $625 million acquisition of PeroxyChem Holding Company, alleging the merger of the chemical companies would substantially reduce competition in the Pacific Northwest and the Southern and Central United States for the production and sale of hydrogen peroxide, a commodity chemical used for oxidation, disinfection, and bleaching.
The Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, and filed settlements for public comment with Cambridge Analytica’s former chief executive and an app developer who worked with the company, alleging they employed deceptive tactics to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting.
Google LLC and its subsidiary YouTube, LLC agreed to pay a $170 million civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General to settle allegations that the YouTube video sharing service illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA).
The Federal Trade Commission mailed 1,177 checks totaling more than $380,000 to people who paid for purported business coaching services that were marketed as a way to help them earn thousands of dollars a month.
Unixiz, Inc., doing business as i-Dressup.com, and the individually named defendants CEO Zhijun Liu and Secretary Xichen Zhang, reached a settlement over allegations they violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
A Georgia-based distributor of water filtration systems has agreed to pay a $110,000 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated a 2017 Federal Trade Commission administrative order by making false claims that wholly imported Chinese water filtration systems were made in the United States.
The FTC required healthcare companies Fresenius Medical Care AG & KGaA and NxStage Medical, Inc. to divest all rights and assets related to NxStage’s bloodline tubing set business to B. Braun Medical, Inc. as part of a settlement resolving charges that Fresenius’s proposed $2 billion acquisition of NxStage likely would be anticompetitive. The FTC’s complaint alleges that the proposed merger would harm competition in the U.S. market for bloodline tubing sets that are compatible with hemodialysis machines used in clinics that treat chronic renal failure. Bloodline tubing sets are single-use plastic tube sets used during hemodialysis treatments. Fresenius and NxStage are two of only three significant suppliers of bloodline tubing sets used in open architecture hemodialysis machines in the United States. Fresenius and NxStage together control 82 percent of the market for bloodlines.The settlement requires Fresenius and NxStage to divest to B. Braun all assets and rights to research, develop, manufacture, market, and sell NxStage’s bloodline tubing sets.
Four separate operations responsible for bombarding consumers nationwide with billions of unwanted and illegal robocalls pitching auto warranties, debt-relief services, home security systems, fake charities, and Google search results services have agreed to settle FTC charges that they violated the FTC Act and the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), including its Do Not Call (DNC) provisions.
