Business Blog

The FTC's law enforcement action against hotel company Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and three of its subsidiaries alleges that a series of security breaches — three within two years — resulted in fraudulent charges, millions of dollars in fraud loss, and the export of hundreds of thousands of people's account information to an Internet domain address registered in Russia.  According to the lawsuit, a number of the defendants' practices, taken together, unreasonably and unnecessarily exposed consumers' personal data, including their cred

If your business is geared toward automotive products, two FTC developments may be in your wheelhouse.

The terms of the FTC’s Spokeo settlement apply just to Spokeo, but that case and other recent law enforcement actions offer insights for a much broader audience.

Like chicken and waffles or ham and pineapple on pizza, some combos don’t sound like they’d go together, but make sense once you find out more.  Put the FTC’s settlement with Spokeo on that list.  According to the FTC, data broker Spokeo violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and used deceptive endorsements in violation of Section 5.  A closer look at the pleadings explains how those two hot topics found their way into one FTC complaint.

A tank top and cut-offs are perfect for a balmy day in Boca Raton, just as a down parka and fuzzy mittens will ward off the shivers in Sheboygan.  That's the idea behind the Department of Energy’s new regional efficiency standards for heating and cooling equipment.  Unlike earlier DOE regs, which mandated uniform energy efficiency levels, the new standards for residential furnaces, central air conditioners, and heat pumps vary by region.  That way, consumers will have the information they need to make a choice suited to their locale.

On classic episodes of the Tonight Show, affable sidekick Ed McMahon sought guidance from Johnny Carson's all-knowing Carnac character.  But as demonstrated by a recent FTC law enforcement action — which involved a company's misleading reference to the late Mr. McMahon — you don't need a psychic to know that challenging deceptive debt collection practices remains a top priority.

Identity theft hits millions of Americans each year.  What many business executives don’t know is that ID thieves are using a variation on the crime to prey on legitimate companies.

An FTC Administrative Law Judge ruled that POM Wonderful LLC and related parties made misleading claims that POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and other products would treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.  Although the remedy in the case wasn’t everything the FTC staff had asked for, the ALJ concluded that POM had engaged in false and deceptive advertising.