Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

In January 2020, the sellers of a pill called ReJuvenation settled FTC charges that they deceptively claimed that their product is a virtual cure-all for age-related ailments—including cell damage, heart attack damage, brain damage, blindness, and deafness. The orders settling the FTC’s complaint prohibit the defendants from making such claims unless they are true and supported by scientific evidence. The orders also require payment of $660,000, which the Commission may use to provide refunds to defrauded consumers. In June 2020, the FTC announced it was sending checks totaling more than $149,000 to consumers who bought the product.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending refunds to individuals who lost money to a company called I Works, which operated deceptive "trial" memberships and bogus government-grant and money-making schemes in 2010. 

In September 2017, a group of online marketers agreed to pay more than $2.5 million to settle FTC charges that it deceived consumers with “free” and “risk-free” trials for cooking and golfing products. According to a complaint filed in March 2017, the defendants offered “free” products, without clearly disclosing that by accepting the “free” product consumers were agreeing to be charged each month for a subscription if they did not cancel. They also allegedly misrepresented their return, refund and cancellation policies. The order setting the FTC’s complaint barred the defendants from misrepresenting the cost of any good or service, that consumers will not be charged, that consumers can get something for a processing or shipping fee with no further obligation, and that a product or service is free. In April 2020, the FTC announced it was sending refund checks totaling $488,629 to defrauded consumers.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued an administrative complaint and authorized a federal court action to block the proposed merger of Jefferson Health and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, two leading providers of inpatient general acute care hospital services and inpatient acute rehabilitation services in both Philadelphia County and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The proposed merger would eliminate the robust competition between Jefferson and Einstein for inclusion in health insurance companies’ hospital networks to the detriment of patients. The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and to authorize staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction was 4-0-1, with Chairman Joseph J. Simons recused. The administrative trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 1, 2020.

The Federal Trade Commission authorized staff of the Bureau of Competition to file suit to enjoin Edgewell Personal Care Company’s proposed $1.37 billion acquisition of its key competitor, Harry’s, Inc. The Commission’s complaint alleged that the proposed combination would eliminate one of the most important competitive forces in the shaving industry. The loss of Harry’s as an independent competitor would have removed a critical disruptive rival that has driven down prices and spurred innovation in an industry that was previously dominated by two main suppliers, one of whom is the acquirer. On Feb. 10, 2020, the FTC issued a statement on the parties’ announcement that they had abandoned the acquisition.

The Federal Trade Commission authorized an action to block Post Holdings, Inc.’s proposed acquisition of the private label ready-to-eat ("RTE") cereal business of TreeHouse Foods, Inc.  In an administrative complaint issued on December 19, 2019, the Commission alleges that the proposed acquisition would harm retailers and end consumers by eliminating head-to-head competition between the Respondents in the United States market for private label RTE cereal. The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and to authorize staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction was 5-0. The administrative trial is scheduled to begin on May 27, 2020. The parties announced they had abandoned the transaction on Jan. 13, 2020.

Mortgage Solutions FCS, doing business as Mount Diablo Lending, and Ramon Walker agreed to pay $120,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other laws by revealing personal information about consumers in response to negative reviews posted on the review website Yelp. 

Investment advisor Third Point LLC and three funds that it controls have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the funds violated the premerger notification and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, or HSR Act, after they acquired the voting securities of DowDuPont Inc. According to the complaint, on Aug. 31, 2017, the shares of Dow Inc. held by the three Third Point funds – Third Point Partners Qualified L.P., Third Point Ultra, Ltd., and Third Point Offshore Fund Ltd. – converted to shares of the newly formed DowDuPont Inc. following the merger of Dow Inc. and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The three funds have agreed to collectively pay $609,810 in civil penalties, and they, together with Third Point LLC, will be barred from committing future violations of the HSR Act in connection with corporate consolidations.

The FTC is mailing refund checks totaling more than $2.6 million to small businesses who lost money to a New York-based office supply scam operated by a business known as A-1 Janitorial.

The FTC and the State of Connecticut sued the marketers of LeanSpa in December 2011, charging that they used fake websites to promote acai berry and “colon cleanse” weight-loss products, and falsely told consumers they could receive free trials by paying a nominal shipping and handling cost. In reality, consumers paid $79.95 for the trial, and for recurring monthly shipments of the product that were hard to cancel. The LeanSpa marketers settled the complaint in 2014, agreeing to stop their allegedly deceptive practices and surrender assets for consumer redress. In October 2015, the FTC announced it was mailing more than 23,000 checks totaling over $3.7 million to consumers who bought LeanSpa products. In December 2019, the FTC sent a second round of checks totaling over $321,000 to consumers who bought LeanSpa products.

The FTC’s December 2016 complaint alleged that between 2011 and 2016 the defendants called timeshare property owners falsely claiming that they had a buyer or renter ready to buy or rent their properties for a specified price, or making false promises to sell the timeshares quickly. A May 2018 settlement order permanently banned the defendants from timeshare resale services and telemarketing and required them to surrender approximately $3.4 million worth of assets to the Commission. On October 10, 2019, the FTC mailed 8,088 refund checks totaling nearly $2.7 million to consumers defrauded by the scheme.

The FTC will be mailing refund checks totaling more than $2.2 million to people who lost money to an alleged pyramid scheme operated by Vemma Nutrition Company.

In November 2017, the Federal Trade Commission charged a Georgia-based debt collection business with tricking people into paying money for debts they did not owe. A federal court temporarily halted the scheme and froze its assets at the FTC’s request. In September 2018, the operators settled the FTC’s claims and are now banned from the debt collection business and from buying or selling debt. The FTC mailed refund checks in September 2019 totaling more than $516,000 to 3,977 consumers as part of the settlement.

The Federal Trade Commission has imposed conditions on UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of DaVita Medical Group. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that the proposed $4.3 billion acquisition would harm competition in healthcare markets in two Nevada counties, Clark and Nye. Under the proposed settlement, the FTC required UnitedHealth Group to divest DaVita’s HealthCare Partners of Nevada to Intermountain Healthcare. The Commission announced on Aug. 22, 2019 that the settlement was made final.