Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

In October 2026, the Federal Trade Commission, the People of the State of California by and through the Los Angeles County Counsel and San Francisco City Attorney, and the Attorneys General of the States of Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah, filed a lawsuit against Toast Inc. and affiliated entities, alleging the restaurant software and fintech company saddles restaurants with hidden fees, unauthorized fees and unwanted add-ons; fails to deliver on its customer support promises; and makes it difficult to cancel its services.

FTC Bureau of Competition Director Daniel Guarnera issued a following statement in response to the announcement that Platinum Equity and its portfolio company, PlayPower, abandoned the proposed acquisition of BCI Burke.

The Federal Trade Commission, joined by 20 states, sued Dollar General Corporation for engaging in long-running deceptive pricing practices by routinely charging customers more at the register than the prices displayed on shelves, price tags and advertisements, costing consumers millions of dollars. 

Despite being made aware of the problem, Dollar General has failed to implement policies and practices to adequately address the problem.

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against GovAssist LLC, Entry LLC and Scott Zuckerman for their alleged involvement in a government impersonation scheme that deceived consumers seeking passport services by purporting to be or be affiliated with the federal government. 

The FTC has taken steps to preserve competition in the digital advertising ecosystem by requiring Publicis Groupe S.A. to continue providing neutral and nondiscriminatory access to LiveRamp Holdings Inc.’s products and services, and to establish firewalls to prevent Publicis from accessing LiveRamp’s customer data, in order to complete Publicis’s acquisition of the company.

The FTC sued REPS & Company Inc., alleging the ticket broker illegally circumvents measures designed to limit the number of tickets that can be purchased for a single event, purchasing millions of tickets to high-demand events that it later resells at a significant profit.

Franchisor Premier Franchising Group LLC (PFG) and its former franchise sales organization, Franchise Fastlane LLC (FFL), will pay $1.85 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they made misleading representations about the Premier Martial Arts (PMA) franchise opportunity and violated the Franchise Rule. 

Under the proposed settlement with PFG, certain franchisees will be given the option to cancel their franchise agreements without penalty. 

The Federal Trade Commission and a group of seven state enforcers filed a complaint in federal district court against Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC, alleging an elaborate anticompetitive scheme to preserve a monopoly for the life-saving drug, Daraprim. The Commission vote to issue the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed on Jan. 27, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a Jan. 14, 2022 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote found Shkreli’s conduct “egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running, and ultimately dangerous.” Judge Cote banned Shkreli for life from the pharmaceutical industry.

On January 23, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s ruling.

On October 13, 2026, the FTC and seven states asked a federal judge to hold “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli in contempt based on their allegations that he flagrantly and repeatedly violated a 2022 court order that banned him from the pharmaceutical industry.

At the request of the FTC, a federal court has halted the activities of Digital Forensics Corporation LLC and its CEO for allegedly defrauding consumers out of millions of dollars using false and deceptive promises relating to “sextortion assistance services.

Greenway Auto Group has agreed that its price advertisements will prominently include the actual price a consumer must pay for a vehicle, excluding only charges the government requires consumers to pay, to settle the Commission’s lawsuit alleging the company advertised prices that were thousands of dollars below what it actually charged.

The Federal Trade Commission is acting against a large automotive dealer group, Asbury Automotive, for systematically charging consumers for costly add-on items they did not agree to or were falsely told were required as part of their purchase. The FTC also alleges that Asbury discriminates against Black and Latino consumers, targeting them with unwanted and higher-priced add-ons.

In an administrative complaint, the FTC alleges that three Texas dealerships owned by Asbury that operate as David McDavid Ford Ft. Worth, David McDavid Honda Frisco, and David McDavid Honda Irving, along with Ali Benli, who acted as general manager of those dealerships, engaged in a variety of practices to sneak hidden fees for unwanted add-ons past consumers. These tactics included a practice called “payment packing,” where the dealerships convinced consumers to agree to monthly payments that were larger than needed to pay for the agreed-upon price of the car, and then “packed” add-on items to the sales contract to make up that difference.

The Federal Trade Commission, joined by the Utah and Nevada Attorneys General, sued to stop a long-running deceptive pricing scheme run by contact lens retailer Lens.com Inc.

In a joint complaint, the FTC, Utah and Nevada allege that Lens.com, along with its owner Cary Samourkachian and an affiliated entity Speed Commerce LLC (together referred to as Lens.com), advertise artificially low prices for contact lenses but then charge consumers much higher prices through substantial, mandatory “Taxes & fees” charges.

Lens.com’s hidden fees routinely double the price it advertises for contact lenses, costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, the complaint alleges.