Business Blog

When consumers comparison shop, cost is crucial.  That’s why it’s so important for companies to make sure what they say about their prices is accurate.  If businesses need a timely reminder, the FTC’s proposed $5 million settlement with CVS Caremark drives that point home.

Upromise offers users a service where they can save for college by getting rebates when they buy merchandise from participating retailers. But as the FTC charged in a recent law enforcement settlement, when it comes to consumer privacy and data security, the college savings membership program may want to consider a refresher course.

It’s great to ring in the New Year, but there’s one thing savvy businesses don’t want to ring: a phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry or a company’s entity-specific list. A recent FTC law enforcement action — and stats from the FTC’s just-released Report to Congress on Do Not Call — emphasize the need for compliance.

The Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey, the Louisiana Embalming and Funeral Directors Act, and the policy goals of the FTC’s Funeral Rule. Not a likely trifecta, but an amicus brief filed by the FTC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit raises interesting issues about the relationship between the three.

If your company has an online presence, you’re probably familiar with ICANN — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — the group that oversees Internet domain names. ICANN has announced a plan to dramatically increase the number of generic top-level domain names.

As anyone who’s watched TV in the past decade knows, Kevin Trudeau is — to use the term coined by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit — an “infomercialist.” The Seventh Circuit’s recent opinion in FTC v. Trudeau offers interesting insights into order enforcement and upholds a multimillion dollar judgment for consumers.

Visiting the BCP Business Center for the latest dos ‘n’ don’ts about making those peepers of yours positively pop? We didn’t think so. But there’s a makeover lesson nonetheless in three FTC law enforcement settlements with online retailers who sold “circle contacts” without a prescription, in violation of the Contact Lens Rule.

The FTC’s complaint against Facebook outlines eight separate areas where the FTC says Facebook’s privacy practices were deceptive or unfair. What provisions does the proposed order put in place to protect people in the future?

One key provision is a broad ban on deception. Facebook can’t misrepresent the privacy or security protections that apply to any “covered information.” The order defines that as information “from or about” an individual consumer like:

In its pending action against Sonkei Communications and two of its officers, the FTC has charged that the defendants sold robocall services to telemarketers who pitched things like home security systems, grant procurement programs, and credit card services.