Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The FTC sued today to block Covetrus Inc. and its owners, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC and TPG Inc., from acquiring its closest competitor, MWI Veterinary Supply Inc., for $3.5 billion from MWI’s parent, Cencora Inc.

Family Dollar will pay $63 million to settle Federal Trade Commission and state allegations that the company routinely charged customers more at the register than the prices displayed on shelves, price tags and advertisements, costing consumers millions of dollars. 

The FTC, joined by Utah and California, by and through Los Angeles County Counsel, today sued Hims & Hers alleging that the telehealth provider shared consumers’ sensitive health information about medical conditions with third-party advertising platforms despite claiming its services maintain consumers’ privacy and deceives users about its billing and cancellation practices.

At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court has temporarily halted and frozen the assets of McDonnell & Associates LLC (also doing business as First Capital Group, Maxwell & Bryant Group and Lewis, McDonnell & Associate LLC) and owners, Oscar Gerardo Gonzalez Martin and Oscar Ruiz Canela for an alleged debt collection operation that the FTC says used deceptive and unlawful tactics to pressure consumers into paying debts that they frequently did not owe.

In November 2026, the FTC announced that the nation’s largest property manager of single-family rental homes, Progress Residential, and its owner, private equity firm Pretium Partners, will pay $49.75 million to settle charges brought by the Commission and four states that the companies misled consumers with deceptive rental pricing practices. 

The FTC and Arizona, Colorado, Indiana and Utah allege Progress and Pretium advertised false rental prices, charged hidden fees, failed to inspect homes before residents moved in, improperly deducted amounts from renters’ security deposits, restricted negative reviews, and failed to provide adequate customer service. 

Riverside Payments Inc., its affiliate Cascade Equipment Leasing LLC and their operators will pay $600,000 to resolve FTC and Washington state allegations that the firms deceived small businesses by falsely promising to save them money on payment processing services and making it nearly impossible to cancel.

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.