[{"source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"FTC sues American Immigration Center for claiming false government affiliation lfair October 16, 2018 | 12:16PM FTC sues American Immigration Center for claiming false government affiliation By Lesley Fair When the FTC warns consumers about government imposter scams, we’re usually referring to bogus calls that falsely claim to come from the IRS or some other official office. But as a case just announced by the FTC demonstrates, that’s not the only kind of false government affiliation that can deceive consumers. A $2.2 million settlement with American Immigration Center reminds other businesses of the dangers of conveying a misleading connection to a government agency. When consumers wanted to renew their green cards or apply for naturalization, where did they go? Online, of course, where they input terms like “USCIS,” “INS,” or “US Immigration” to search for the proper government site. According to the FTC, that’s how they ran across results with tag lines like “USCIS Forms – Easy Online Forms for Green Card & Citizenship.” A click took them to sites with the outward appearance of official government webpages. First, there were the URLs – usimmigration.us, uscitizenship.info, etc. Then there was the red, white, and blue color scheme, the Statue of Liberty, passports, and pictures of then-President Obama. What’s more, people looking for, say, Green Card Renewal Form I-90, saw links with the exact name of the relevant document. According to the FTC, people paid between $120 to $300 and input a substantial amount of personal information, all under the impression they were filing documents directly with a government agency. Except that they weren’t. Despite the appearance of those pages, consumers were actually on one of many commercial sites the defendants used to sell their “software wizard” to fill out government immigration forms. And the money consumers paid didn’t go toward government filing fees. It went straight into the defendants’ pockets. In addition to the $2.2 million judgment, the defendants have agreed to clearly disclose that: 1) their sites aren’t affiliated with the government; 2) people must separately file immigration applications with the appropriate government agency; and 3) people must separately pay applicable filing fees to the government. The proposed order also bars the defendants – principal Cesare Alessandrini and Forms Direct, Inc., doing business as American Immigration Center – from stating or implying any affiliation with the government. What’s the message for other companies? Avoid an affiliation conflation. Look at your ads and websites from the point of view of your target audience. Could prospective customers be left with the misimpression that your company has an affiliation with a government agency? Steer clear of any purported connection to a local, state, or federal government office. Consider the big picture. The complaint in this case cited the words the defendants used to convey claims to consumers, as well as what their websites looked like. That’s because, according to the FTC Deception Policy Statement , “The Commission will evaluate the entire advertisement, transaction, or course of dealing in determining how reasonable consumers are likely to respond.” That specifically includes visual imagery and the omission of material information. Wise companies bear in mind the FTC’s long-established “net impression” standard and exercise caution in drafting their copy, selecting graphics, and choosing what they say – and what they don’t say – to consumers.","id":3203252,"titre":"FTC sues American Immigration Center for claiming false government affiliation","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/10/ftc-sues-american-immigration-center-claiming-false-government-affiliation","pubDate":"Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:06:59 +0200"},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/09/root-root-root-regions","titre":"Root, root root for the regions","pubDate":"Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:05:07 +0200","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"Root, root root for the regions lfair September 24, 2018 | 2:03PM Root, root root for the regions By Andrew Smith, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection T his year eight major league baseball teams are celebrating milestone anniversaries – and so are the FTC’s regional offices. In 1918, the Commission opened the first three of its regional offices. Today, eight regional offices continue to knock it out the park on behalf of America’s consumers. So it’s only fitting that on this momentous day we acknowledge the regional offices’ century of pennant-winning performances. According to the Commission’s 1918 Annual Report, “In order to expedite the greatly increased work of the Commission . . . small branch offices were established in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.” Over time, the FTC has added other locations for a current total of eight offices in seven regions. Regional staff work with the Bureau of Consumer Protection and the Bureau of Competition on investigations and litigation. But they are in a unique position to host roundtables and workshops in their communities; to coordinate with local, state, and cross-border law enforcers; and to build partnerships with consumer groups and small business organizations within their region. According to the scouting report, there isn’t a pitch they can’t hit. Here’s a brief look at each region’s box score with a focus on just a few of their many MVP contributions to the FTC’s consumer protection mission. East Central Region . In 1918, the Cleveland Indians finished just out of pennant contention, but the FTC’s Cleveland-based office works hard to bring home the W for consumers and small businesses. For example, ECR has brought a number of cases over the past two decades to protect small businesses in their area and around the country, including cramming, business directory, and unordered merchandise scams. Recently, ECR played a central role in Operation Main Street, the FTC’s recent initiative against scammers targeting small businesses. Midwest Region . Chicago fans may be divided in their loyalty to the Cubs and the White Sox, but consumers who lost money to scammers who used the services of a major money transfer company are united in their appreciation for the FTC-DOJ settlement that returned $586 million back to them. And just recently, MWR hosted the Commission’s workshop on cryptocurrency scams and took a lead role in Operation Tech Trap, a coordinated state, federal, and international effort to shut down tech support fraudsters. Northeast Region . Given New York’s connection to names like Huggins, Houk, Stengel, Berra, and Torre, it’s no wonder the FTC’s Northeast Region has particular expertise in coaching. But in NER’s case, it’s about companies that make deceptive “coaching” and money-making representations. The New York-based office also has been one of the FTC’s power hitters in addressing misleading practices in the affiliate marketing industry. And from their Big Apple location, NER has been a leader in educating consumers, particularly older Americans and small businesses. Northwest Region . Like their hometown Seattle Mariners, the FTC’s Northwest Region has a proven record of navigating the complexities on the field of play. NWR coordinated Operation Donate with Honor, a nationwide crackdown on fraudulent charities alleged to have conned consumers by falsely promising their contributions will help veterans and servicemembers. In addition, our team in Seattle regularly coordinates with Canadian counterparts to combat cross-border fraud. And they’ve been ahead of the curve on tech issues, bringing one of the FTC’s first internet cases in the 90s and more recently, an early online influencer action. Southeast Region . The Atlanta Braves boast a national fan base – and due to their expertise in fighting fraud, the FTC’s Southeast Region can be proud of its coast-to-coast impact,","id":3201877},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2014/10/first-ftc-rosca-case-challenges-bogus-bogo-free-claims","titre":"First FTC ROSCA case challenges bogus BOGO and \"free\" claims","pubDate":"Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:05:50 +0200","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"First FTC ROSCA case challenges bogus BOGO and \"free\" claims wfg-adm109 October 21, 2014 | 12:02PM First FTC ROSCA case challenges bogus BOGO and \"free\" claims By Lesley Fair It’s called ROSCA – the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act – and it prohibits marketers from charging consumers for an online transaction unless the marketer has clearly disclosed all material terms of the deal and received the consumer’s express informed consent. Your e-commerce clients will want to know about the FTC’s first ROSCA case , filed recently in Nevada. According to the lawsuit, Health Formulas, LLC and a tangle of related California- and Nevada-based companies and individuals – consumers may know them as Simple Pure Nutrition – pitched a variety of products for weight loss, muscle building, virility, and skin care. The defendants advertised diet supplements like Pure Green Coffee Bean Plus and RKG Extreme as a shortcut to drop the pounds: “Burn fat without diet or exercise,” “Extreme weight loss!” “Shed pounds fast!” “Super concentrated double fat burning,” etc. Among the defendants’ more colorful business names: Weight Loss Dojo, Longhorn Marketing (sorry, Texas fans), Black Bull, and Unleash the Thunder. But unsubstantiated weight loss claims were just the start. The FTC says the defendants lured people in with bogus promises of a “free” trial or deceptive buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers. Then they tricked consumers into giving their credit or debit card information with the false implication that consumers had to “just pay shipping.”   Digits in hand, the defendants really went to town, allegedly signing consumers up without their authorization for a negative option program that billed their accounts over and over again, to the monthly tune of between $60 and $210. The FTC says the defendants violated ROSCA by using a negative option feature without providing clear and conspicuous disclosures, getting the consumer’s express informed consent, and offering a simple mechanism for stopping the recurring charges. The FTC’s complaint also cites the defendants’ hard-to-find and hard-to-understand fine-print “terms and conditions,” which consumers could reach only by scrolling through the equivalent of two printed pages and clicking on an obscure hyperlink. Assuming they found it – and that’s a big if – the typical “terms and conditions” document was 10 pages long. On some websites, consumers had to scroll down the payment page to see further fine-print disclosures about the cost of the products. The first sentence reiterated what consumers generally understood (“You must pay a shipping and handling fee of $4.95 for us to send you a full 30 day supply of Garcinia Cambogia Extract”) but it wasn’t until the middle of the paragraph that the defendants mentioned that the trial period lasts only 14 days, that it began when the items were shipped (not delivered), and that consumers would be charged after that. Other websites didn’t even include that information. According to the lawsuit, consumers who attempted to take the defendants up on their money-back guarantee were met with a series of undisclosed roadblocks. In addition to the ROSCA counts, the FTC says the defendants’ practices violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act by debiting consumers’ accounts on a recurring basis without their prior written authorization. What’s more, the complaint charges that the defendants continued to call people after being told to cut it out, in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule’s entity-specific Do Not Call provisions. The FTC says they also violated the TSR through a series of deceptive upsells. A federal judge has entered a temporary restraining order and the FTC is seeking to put a permanent stop to the defendants’ illegal practices. If your clients have ROSCA questions, the","id":3201052},{"source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"We can’t go for that (no can do) lfair July 17, 2017 | 11:38AM We can’t go for that (no can do) By Lesley Fair Of course, phantom debt collection – the practice of pressuring people to pay “debts” they don’t owe – harms consumers. But as an FTC complaint demonstrates, when phantom debt collectors strike, they could affect your company, too. According to the FTC , a Florida-based outfit engaged in a scheme to defraud consumers through the collection of debts people didn’t actually owe or the company didn’t have the authority to collect. The complaint charges that the defendants – Hardco Holding Group, S & H Financial Group, Dequan M. Sicard, and Daryl M. Hall (no, not that Daryl Hall) – violated the FTC Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. When contacting consumers, in many instances the defendants allegedly impersonated attorneys and threatened to have people thrown in jail if they didn’t pay up on delinquent payday loans – loans, remember, that many consumers didn’t take out in the first place and defendants didn’t have the right to collect. One tactic involved contacting people with a “case number” and directing them to dial a callback number. On the second call, the defendants allegedly said they were affiliated with named law firms and that the consumer had committed a felony, could go to prison, or faced arrest. According to the complaint , to boost the credibility of their threat of pending or imminent legal action, the defendants claimed to have the consumer’s Social Security number, bank account number, or contact information for family members. Afraid of legal repercussions, many consumers knuckled under to the demand for payment. The FTC says the defendants also told third parties that consumers owed money, a violation of the FDCPA. In addition, the complaint charges that the defendants didn’t disclose their identity to consumers, failed to provide proper validation notices, and used other false, misleading, and abusive tactics. Phantom debt collectors unquestionably injure consumers, but how could conduct like that affect your company? According to the lawsuit, when pressed to identify themselves, the defendants often gave the names or addresses of legitimate small businesses that had nothing to do with the purported debt or the debt collectors. When concerned consumers contacted those companies to complain, their employees got an understandably angry earful. From the FTC’s perspective, unrelated small businesses shouldn’t have their reputations sullied by others’ allegedly illegal tactics. A federal court in Orlando has temporarily halted the operation and frozen its assets. The FTC wants to stop the illegal practices once and for all. What can consumers do if they’re getting calls for debts they don’t owe ? File a complaint with the FTC. How can small businesses help protect their good names? Every now and then, do a selfie search with your company name and a word like “debt.” If you see consumer posts that suggest that a debt collector is illegally using your name – or if your employees are getting complaints about debt collection calls supposedly coming from your company – let the FTC know about it , too. In the meantime, businesses looking for FDCPA compliance resources can visit the FTC’s debt collection page for some – in the words of the other Daryl Hall (and let’s not forget John Oates) – “Adult Education.”","id":3200011,"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/07/we-cant-go-no-can-do","titre":"We can’t go for that (no can do)","pubDate":"Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:06:39 +0200"},{"pubDate":"Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:06:23 +0200","titre":"FTC asks “Do consumers notice class action notices?”","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2019/09/ftc-asks-do-consumers-notice-class-action-notices","id":3199071,"description":"FTC asks “Do consumers notice class action notices?” lfair September 9, 2019 | 11:17AM FTC asks “Do consumers notice class action notices?” By Lesley Fair Do consumers notice consumer class action notices? That’s one of the topics that experts will discuss at an upcoming FTC workshop on issues related to communicating with consumers about class actions . Set for October 29, 2019, in Washington, DC, Consumers and Class Action Notices: An FTC Workshop will feature panelists from a wide range of perspectives exploring what the research suggests about notice methods, claims rates, and redress – and what can be done to improve consumer participation in class action settlements. To enhance our understanding of the issues, FTC staff just released a report summarizing the findings of two studies involving consumer class actions. In the first study, we looked at a sample of more than 140 cases and analyzed how variables like notice methods and compensation amounts affected consumer claims and check-cashing rates. A second staff study explored consumer perceptions of class action notices, including whether people understood their options. Consumer class actions have been an issue of long-standing interest to the FTC. For more than a decade, the agency’s Class Action Fairness Project has worked to ensure that settlements in consumer protection and competition matters provide appropriate benefits to consumers. To that end, the FTC has coordinated with state, federal, and private groups to gather information; looked at the impact of legislative and class action rule changes; and – where appropriate – filed amicus briefs. Free and open to the public, Consumers and Class Action Notices will take place at the FTC’s Constitution Center conference facility, 400 7th Street, S.W., in Washington. We’ll post the agenda soon, but in the meantime, we welcome your comments , including additional consumer perception evidence. We’ll keep the record open until November 22, 2019. Can’t make it to DC on October 29th? The event will be webcast.","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts"},{"source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim lfair August 6, 2018 | 11:11AM First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim By Lesley Fair T he marketers behind a purported money-making promotion called Sellers Playbook appear to have skipped the chapter about complying with federal and state consumer protection laws. That’s the allegation in a complaint filed by the FTC and the Minnesota Attorney General . In addition, it’s the FTC’s first case charg ing violations of the Consumer Review Fairness Act. The roots of the allegations go back to another venture sued by the FTC earlier this year: FBA Stores, also known as Amazing Wealth System and Amazon Wealth Systems. The defendants in that case ran online ads and in-person workshops that claimed to reveal the secret s of making major money on Amazon. But few, if any, of the consumers who forked over thousands of dollars and implemented their “plug-and-play systems” earn ed the kind of cash the defendants claimed. Which brings us to Sellers Playbook, Exposure Marketing, Jessie Conners Tieva, and Matthew Tieva – Minnesota-based defendants charged with pitching the same kind of “secrets” to making big bucks on Amazon . According to the just-filed lawsuit , the striking similarities should come as no surprise. That ’s because defendant Jessie Tieva was a regular speaker at Amazing Wealth Systems’ workshops. How successful was she in getting consumers to sign up? The complaint charges that Ms. Tieva and her team generated more than $3.4 million in sales for Amazing Wealth Systems. And let’s be clear: We’re not talking about $3.4 million in sales by consumers who successfully implemented the system. We mean $3.4 million that consumers shelled out to the operators of Amazing Wealth Systems for which Tieva was paid a handsome commission. The complaint alleges that the new Sellers Playbook venture is, in effect, a copycat of the now-defunct Amazing Wealth Systems operation. The earning claims certainly have a familiar ring to them. Here’s how Sellers Playbook touted their “opportunity”: “Holy cow, guys. That’s when you start seeing the returns of what we want you to have, $20,000 a month,” “Potential Net Profit: $1,287,463.38,” “Starting with $1000...1 year later over $210,000,” and “How many of you would like to learn how to turn a $5- to $10,000 investment into a $25- to a $1.2 million return with your investment? Yeah. And you’re going to learn those strategies before you leave here today. There are a few other things Amazon Wealth Systems and Sellers Playbook have in common: 1) Neither company has any affiliation with Amazon; and 2) Both companies charged consumers hundreds of dollars – or even hefty five-figure fees – to sign up. Of course, few consumers make the kind of earnings the defendants claimed. According to the complaint, many of the webpages promoting Sellers Playbook contained an inconspicuous earnings disclaimer in grey near the bottom of the page. What’s more, at a live event, the defendants briefly displayed this slide, which one of the presenters downplayed with this statement: “That’s why they have us do this again. It makes the lawyers happy, disclaimers. But you got to do your part. Money’s not going to fall from the sky. But as long as you do a part, it’s going to happen.” T he complaint challenges the defendants’ earning claims as false or unsubstantiated under FTC law and the Minnesota Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act. What’s more, the lawsuit alleges multiple violations of the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule . The FTC and the AG also charge that provisions in the defendants’ form contracts try to restrict consumers’ ability to post reviews of their products, services, or conduct , in violation of the Consumer Review Fairness","id":3199075,"titre":"First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/08/first-consumer-review-fairness-case-takes-promoters-big-bucks-amazon-claim","pubDate":"Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:06:23 +0200"},{"pubDate":"Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:07:45 +0200","titre":"FTC, Florida AG to small business: Scrutinize “o-fishy-al” invoices","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/07/ftc-florida-ag-small-business-scrutinize-o-fishy-al-invoices","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","id":3198177,"description":"FTC, Florida AG to small business: Scrutinize “o-fishy-al” invoices lfair July 30, 2018 | 11:05AM FTC, Florida AG to small business: Scrutinize “o-fishy-al” invoices By Lesley Fair If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. But the same can’t be said for a mailer that looks like an official invoice. It could be an “o- fishy -al” offer that deceptively mimics the appearance of a government document. A case filed by the FTC and the Florida Attorney General challenges the practice of sending mailers that allegedly create the false impression that small businesses are required to buy labor regulation posters from the sender. Consider what defendants Starwood Consulting, also doing business as Corporate Compliance Services, and company president Thomas Henry Fred, Jr., sent to small businesses. The mailers – which include a Washington, D.C., 202 area code – are titled “LABOR LAW COMPLIANCE REQUEST FORM” and include the warning “Failure to comply with posting regulations can lead to fines up to $17,000.” The mailers include a “Business ID” and instruct recipients to respond by a certain date. Small businesses can’t miss the purported consequences of ignoring the letter: Your business is required by federal law to post a current compliant labor law poster in the workplace. Federal law requires that this poster be placed on the property of the business. Whether you have 1 employee or 1,000 you must post current employment posters in the workplace. The poster must also include information about workers compensation benefits. Pursuant to federal law 29 USC Sec. 999(i) & 29 USC Sec. 2005 penalties and risks of non-compliance with posting regulations can lead to potential fines of $17,000 per instance, for failing to post federally required information. Further, lawsuits can be tolled based on failing to display mandatory posters. . . . To obtain your Federal employment labor law poster, please detach the above coupon and return it in the enclosed envelope with your document processing fee of $84.00. The mailer continues: “IMPORTANT! FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY WHEN COMPLETING THIS FORM.” Those instructions include directions to detach the “payment coupon,” return it with the “document fee” of $84, and keep the bottom portion as the “official receipt.” The enclosed return envelope is addressed to “Corporate Compliance Services, Compliance Processing Center.” That’s a description of the mailer, but here are the facts, according to the FTC and the AG. First, the mailer isn’t from a government entity or affiliate. Starwood Consulting and its d/b/a Corporate Compliance Services are private companies in the business of selling those posters. In addition, despite the 202 area code, the defendants have no operations in Washington and posters similar to the ones the defendants peddle are available for free from the U.S. Department of Labor. What about those statutory provisions referring to “potential fines of $17,000 per instance”? In fact, neither of those citations has anything to do with labor posters. 29 U.S.C. § 999(i) refers to repealed provisions of the Young Adult Conservation Corps and 29 U.S.C. § 2005 addresses the Employee Polygraph Protection Act. According to the complaint , recipients of the mailer are often small businesses that have recently incorporated or established limited liability companies. What’s more, some businesses say they never received the posters they paid for. Others report they got second notices that they had to pay another $84 fee to get an updated poster. Despite a small “disclaimer” at the bottom of the reverse side of the mailer that “[t]his offer serves as a solicitation and not to be intended as a bill due,” the FTC and the AG say that business owners were misled and filed more than 250 complaints about the company. (According to the Better Business"},{"source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","id":3197411,"description":"Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Business rocks on in Cleveland sgressin September 21, 2020 | 12:03PM Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Business rocks on in Cleveland By Seena Gressin Natives and fans heartily agree that “Cleveland Rocks!” That’s why the Federal Trade Commission and its Ohio partners are ready to roll with the next installment of Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Business , set to make its online debut on October 29, 2020, from Cleveland. The free business workshop focuses on current topics in truth-in-advertising law, social media marketing, data security, business-to-business fraud, and more. Who should attend the virtual event? Ohio business owners, marketing and advertising professionals, attorneys — anyone who needs to know how established consumer protection principles apply in today’s fast-paced marketplace.  The Office of the Ohio Attorney General, Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland, and the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs are joining the FTC in sponsoring Green Lights & Red Flags . Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, is among the featured speakers, and a roster of Ohio experts will share practical insights. Visit our event page for details. This year’s Green Lights & Red Flags event continues the popular business workshop series that the FTC has held over the years with regional partners in cities across the county. Topics include: Protecting Small Business from Scams . What federal and state law enforcers and the Better Business Bureau are doing to protect your company from business-to-business fraud, and steps you can take to help protect yourself. The Truth About False Advertising. An introduction to truth-in-advertising law. Avoiding a Promotion Commotion. Social media marketing, consumer reviews, children’s online privacy, email marketing, and other timely topics. The Secure Entrepreneur. Data security basics and practical tips on responding to a cyberattack. Green Lights & Red Flags will run from 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on October 29th. Space is limited and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, please use this link . We hope to see you there,","pubDate":"Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:07:08 +0200","titre":"Green Lights & Red Flags: FTC Rules of the Road for Business rocks on in Cleveland","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2020/09/green-lights-red-flags-ftc-rules-road-business-rocks-cleveland"},{"id":3197412,"description":"FTC wants your feedback about proposed Made in USA Rule lfair June 22, 2020 | 4:04PM FTC wants your feedback about proposed Made in USA Rule By Lesley Fair If your clients are interested in Made in USA issues – and you know they are – there are two developments at the FTC they need to know about. First, the FTC just announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a Made in USA Labeling Rule . You’ll want to read the notice in detail, but the proposed Rule would apply to labels on products that make unqualified Made in USA claims. (In FTC parlance, an “unqualified” claim is a broad representation made without limitations.) The proposed Rule would incorporate established guidance already set forth in FTC decisions and orders and in the agency’s 1997 Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims . Consistent with that guidance, the proposed Rule would prohibit marketers from making unqualified MUSA claims on labels unless: Final assembly or processing of the product occurs in the United States; All significant processing that goes into the product occurs in the United States; and All or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and sourced in the United States. The proposed Rule wouldn’t change or affect any other existing federal or state law or regulation relating to country-of-origin labels, but it suggests one notable modification: The proposed Rule would allow the FTC to seek civil penalties for violations. Once the proposed Rule is published in the Federal Register, we invite you to file a public comment either online or on paper. (Thanks for following the instructions for submitting comments included in the notice of proposed rulemaking.) Development #2 is that the FTC just issued a staff report on last fall’s Made in USA workshop convened to consider consumer perception of Made in USA claims and to discuss the agency’s Made in USA enforcement program. Dive into the report for the details, but according to the one panelist who provided survey evidence on how consumers understand Made in USA claims, a 2013 study suggests that almost 3 in 5 Americans agree that “Made in America” means that all parts of a product, including any natural resources it contains, originated in the United States. According to that same study, one third of consumers believe that 100% of a product must originate in a country for it to be called “made” in that country. The report cites those statistics in support of long-standing guidance in the FTC’s Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims that at least a significant minority of consumers are likely to be deceived by an unqualified Made in USA claim for a product incorporating more than a trivial amount of foreign content.","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","pubDate":"Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:07:08 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2020/06/ftc-wants-your-feedback-about-proposed-made-usa-rule","titre":"FTC wants your feedback about proposed Made in USA Rule"},{"titre":"Buckle up for a two-lane look at car buying","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2020/07/buckle-two-lane-look-car-buying","pubDate":"Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:09:38 +0200","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"Buckle up for a two-lane look at car buying lfair July 30, 2020 | 1:04PM Buckle up for a two-lane look at car buying By Lesley Fair It’s one of the biggest purchases people make, but two new FTC staff reports examine some common pitfalls when consumers are in the market for a car. Buckle down and read the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Buckle Up: Navigating Auto Sales and Financing , which focuses on the challenges buyers face in getting accurate, understandable information when shopping for a vehicle. Not in the auto business? Not so fast. The deep-dive analysis of  Buckle Up  and an accompanying report by BCP staff and the Bureau of Economics – The Auto Buyer Study: Lessons From In-Depth Consumer Interviews And Related Research  – offer insights into the perception and behavior of consumers in the study that can apply to other industries. The FTC’s interest in auto-related transactions goes back decades. (Check out Volume 1 of Federal Trade Commission Decisions for a 1919 case regarding deception in the sale of auto parts.) The FTC has brought law enforcement actions challenging illegal practices, held workshops and roundtables to hear from consumer groups and industry members, and educated buyers and sellers about their rights and responsibilities. One notable feature about the two new reports is that FTC staff went straight to the source and based their views, in part, on detailed interviews with consumers about their experiences when buying and financing a vehicle. You’ll want to read Buckle Up from bumper to bumper, but one key finding is that consumers may be unaware of key terms in sales and financing contracts. One reason may be the extent to which the negotiations process focuses primarily on the monthly payment. That approach can leave consumers in the dark about other important – sometimes even more important – financial variables like the down payment, the length of financing, the total sales price, and the annual percentage rate. So let’s say the consumer has decided on a vehicle and has come to an agreement on the price. All done? Consumers may think the checkered flag is in sight, but for the dealership, negotiations have just begun. First, as the report suggests, “price” can be an elusive concept in the context of car buying. Does it mean sticker price, out-the-door price, total sales price, or something else? Furthermore, it’s often in a last-lap meeting in the financing office that dealers raise the issue of add-ons – purchases like extended warranties, service plans, credit insurance, GAP policies, window etching, etc., that can add substantially to what consumers walking into the office thought the price was. Add-ons also may have limits or conditions and may not cover what consumers expect. The staff report suggests several reasons why add-ons were the single greatest area of confusion for consumers who participated in the study. According to the report, the talk turned to add-ons only after long hours (or days or weeks) of negotiations left consumers feeling both pressured to close the deal and confused by the details. Even the very nature of the products left many consumers bewildered. Are these add-ons mandatory? Are they free? Is the cost included in what consumers perceive as the already agreed-upon price? Does the dealership’s practice of bundling – offering add-ons as a package – mean buyers can’t pick and choose the add-ons they want? What about consumers’ opportunity to review the purchase and financing paperwork? As the report notes, “[T]he length of the auto-buying process, the amount of paperwork involved, and the technical industry jargon often coalesce to make meaningful review and engagement a challenging task.” Participants in the study cited the exhausting negotiation process, a sense of feeling rushed at the end, information overload that left some of them “overwhelmed,” and the difficulty of reviewing documents on a tablet or other","id":3194915},{"id":3194908,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission secured a settlement agreement with Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits LLC, the nation’s largest distributor of wine and spirits, that will redress allegedly illegal price discrimination practices and make it easier for small businesses to compete against large chain retailers. The sweeping settlement covers nearly all Southern wine and spirits sales to the five largest chain retailers in 26 states. The settlement will also provide direct cash payments to harmed small businesses if an independent monitor finds that Southern violates the settlement order going forward. “This settlement marks a significant milestone for the FTC in its enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act, which Congress enacted to empower small businesses to compete against large ones,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Small businesses are an invaluable part of the American economy and way of life. The FTC is committed to ensuring that all businesses, no matter their size, can compete on a fair and level playing field to serve their customers and boost the entire American economy.” The FTC’s settlement with Southern delivers a successful conclusion to the Commission’s first enforcement action under the Robinson-Patman Act in a generation. Under the terms of a proposed stipulated order filed by the FTC , Southern will face limitations on its ability to charge small, independent retailers higher prices for wine and spirits than it charges competing large retail chains.  The FTC’s settlement resolves a  lawsuit brought by the Commission in 2024, which alleges that Southern violated the Robinson-Patman Act by depriving small, independent businesses access to discounts and rebates that were available to large competitors. As alleged in the complaint, these pricing practices interfere with the ability of independent retailers to compete against large national and regional chains and big box stores. Under the Robinson-Patman Act, it is generally unlawful for sellers to engage in price discrimination that harms competition by charging higher prices to disfavored retailers that purchase similar goods. According to the FTC’s complaint, Southern charged significantly higher prices for sales of identical bottles of wine and spirits during the same time period to independent retailers as compared to competing large chains, like Total Wine, Walmart and Kroger, even when the stores were located a few miles or even a few blocks from each other. Southern engaged in discriminatory pricing via a variety of mechanisms, such as by offering discounts and rebates to large buyers that were inaccessible to small competitors and were not justified by differences in the cost of distributing products to different retailers, the FTC’s complaint further alleged.  Settlement Terms  To resolve the FTC’s complaint, Southern has agreed to a series of conditions that will disincentivize the company from engaging in discriminatory pricing and compensate independent retailers if they are harmed. Specifically, the terms of the proposed stipulated order target “paired” transactions where Southern sells a product to a chain retailer at one price while contemporaneously selling that same product to a nearby independent retailer at a significantly higher price.  Southern will be in violation of the FTC’s proposed stipulated order, if, among other conditions, the paired transactions involve:  Significant price discrimination (exceeding a maximum threshold based on state-specific operating costs) Recurring price discrimination (in the aggregate, exceeding $5,000 over a 12-month period) Where a set of discriminatory paired transactions meets certain specifications, Southern can resolve the violation by paying the independent retailer 1.5 times the full aggregated price-differential amount. If Southern does not redress the price discrimination, the FTC can bring an enforcement action, and, if the Commission","source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","pubDate":"Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:09:36 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/10/ftc-secures-settlement-protects-small-businesses-illegal-price-discrimination","titre":"FTC Secures Settlement that Protects Small Businesses from Illegal Price Discrimination"},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2021/02/it-amour-or-scam-more","titre":"Is it amour – or scam-more?","pubDate":"Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:10:47 +0200","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"Is it amour – or scam-more? lfair February 11, 2021 | 12:17PM Is it amour – or scam-more? By Lesley Fair Online romance may begin with Panic! At The Disco’s High Hopes , but according to a new FTC Data Spotlight , all too often it ends with the conclusion that – to quote the J. Geils Band –  Love Stinks . Far be it from us to put a damper on Valentine’s Day, but reports to the Consumer Sentinel Network suggest that the injury inflicted by romance scams is on the rise. According to the new Data Spotlight , “For three years running, people have reported losing more money on romance scams than on any other fraud type identified in Sentinel. In 2020, reported losses to romance scams reached a record $304 million, up about 50% from 2019. For an individual, that meant a median dollar loss of $2,500.” Why the increase? The continued popularity of dating apps is part of the story, but the pandemic has played a part, too. For right now, the need for social distancing and masking makes the “meet cute” at the local coffee shop less likely. Of course, we’ve all heard heart-warming stories of romances that started on screen and blossomed IRL, but the Data Spotlight suggests that at least some of those digital dalliances may be hiding something more sinister. What does that have to do with you? We thought you’d never ask. Chances are that someone you know – a friend or family member perhaps – has a long-distance love they have yet to meet. A subtle word from you about the telltale signs of a romance scam could mean one less report to Consumer Sentinel in 2021 about a heart broken and a wallet emptied by a romance scammer. It can be a difficult topic to broach, but we have a sure-fire opener: “I just read the most fascinating thing on the website of the Federal Trade Commission, America’s consumer protection agency.” (What? That’s not your typical conversation starter? No Valentine for you!) Regardless of how you bring up the topic, Valentine’s Day offers a way to share some heart-to-heart hints. Romance scams can happen to anyone. According to the Data Spotlight, reports of money lost on romance scams increased for every age group in 2020. The 20-29 crowd saw the most notable spike, with the number of reports more than doubling since 2019. People between 40 and 69 were once again the most likely to report losing money to romance scams. And people 70+ reported the highest individual median losses at $9,475. Every picture tells a story, but some of those stories are fiction. Knowing that fetching photos can lure in a love, scammers routinely steal people’s snaps and pass themselves off as the person in the picture. To investigate their identity, try a reverse-image search of their profile picture or other photos they send you. If the picture is associated with another name or if the details don’t match up, you’re dealing with a scammer. Don’t mix romance with finance. We’ve always cautioned people not to wire money or send gift cards to online loves, but we have a new tip to add. Don’t let your guard down just because that special someone sends you money first. You can bet the money’s stolen. Next, they’ll want you to send it on for some cooked-up reason. This is how people become unwitting accomplices to money laundering. As soon as the requests for money start, it’s time to – depending on your musical generation – Go Your Own Way , bid them Bye Bye Bye , or make it clear that We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together . The FTC has more advice on how to spot a romance scam . ","id":3191273},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":3176041,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission announced today that is considering whether to update its Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses or take other action to prevent online platforms from engaging in ad-optimization practices that may be furthering impersonation scams. In an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to be published in the Federal Register , the FTC is seeking comment on the extent to which ad-optimization tools and services offered by social media, search engines and other digital marketplace platforms further efforts by scammers to impersonate legitimate businesses and government agencies using online ads.  “Free markets depend on trust, transparency and consumers’ ability to make informed choices. Impersonation scams—especially when amplified by digital platforms that profit from them—do more than rob Americans of their hard-earned money,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “They erode the very foundation that allows competitive markets to function. Today’s impersonation scams are no longer the work of isolated con artists; they are sophisticated, highly engineered operations powered by the same advertising and targeting tools that platforms sell to legitimate businesses. Consumers reported nearly $3.5 billion in losses to impersonation fraud last year, and the true cost is likely far higher. “The Commission’s mission has always been to safeguard the conditions under which competitive markets can thrive. Increasingly, consumers rely on a small number of dominant digital platforms for everyday transactions—from shopping, banking and travel bookings to accessing government services. Yet these platforms are the very places fraudsters seek out consumers, exploiting their trust while platforms profit from optimizing and disseminating scam ads. “Today’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking asks whether the Commission should require platforms to take concrete steps to prevent impersonation ads from ever reaching consumers. By exploring potential new obligations platforms would have to follow, the rulemaking aims to ensure that Americans participate in an online economy where truthful information guides consumer choice.”  Impersonation scams have topped the list of fraud complaints reported to the FTC by consumers in recent years. In 2025, the FTC received more than 1 million reports about imposter scams from consumers, who reported losing nearly $3.5 billion to such scams. In addition, online platforms play an important role in many scams. For example, nearly 30% of consumers who reported losing money to scammers in 2025 said they were first contacted on social media platforms, with reported losses reaching $2.1 billion. The ANPRM notes that impersonation scams have been amplified by search engines, social media and other digital marketplace platforms that profit from optimizing online ads for third parties, regardless of whether the third parties are legitimate. The ANPRM seeks comment on a wide range of topics related to the use of these ad-optimization tools and services and the proliferation of ads that impersonate businesses and government agencies including:  The financial incentives driving these platforms to offer ad-optimization tools and services, details on how each tool and service optimizes the content and delivery of the ad, and the steps platforms currently take to prevent the use of such tools and services for deceptive advertising The extent to which these platform ad-optimization tools and services constitute unfair or deceptive acts or practices by furthering impersonation scams Whether these unfair or deceptive acts or practices are prevalent in the marketplace and whether the Commission should address these acts or practices by amending the existing Impersonation Rule, proposing a new separate rule or implementing non-regulatory Measures Measures the Commission could consider in crafting any new regulations, including vetting","pubDate":"Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:10:48 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/09/ftc-seeks-public-comment-whether-update-rule-impersonation-government-businesses-address-platforms","titre":"FTC Seeks Public Comment on Whether to Update Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses to Address Platforms’ Role in Promoting Impersonation Scams"},{"titre":"FleetCor Agrees to Pay $100 Million to Resolve Administrative Action After Federal Court Finds that It Violated the FTC Act by Charging Unauthorized Fees","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/09/fleetcor-agrees-pay-100-million-resolve-administrative-action-after-federal-court-finds-it-violated","pubDate":"Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:08:58 +0200","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"FleetCor and its CEO will pay $100 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission administrative action alleging that the company charged its customers, who overwhelmingly are small businesses, undisclosed fees in connection with their use of fuel cards that FleetCor falsely promised businesses would save them money. In a complaint first filed in federal court in 2019 , the FTC alleged that FleetCor Technologies Inc., now known as Corpay Inc., and its CEO Ronald Clarke imposed a broad array of unauthorized fees that its customers never knew about and did not agree to pay, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and harming tens of thousands of customers.  In addition, FleetCor charged late fees to customers who had either paid on time or were prevented by FleetCor from paying on time. FleetCor also misrepresented the gas savings, fraud-control features, and fees associated with its fuel cards. “FleetCor deceived its small business customers by promising fuel savings that never materialized, while unfairly charging them hidden and unauthorized fees,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “In addition to the relief the FTC has obtained in federal court, this order will help return money to the customers the company took advantage of.” According to the complaint, FleetCor often waited to begin charging many fees until several billing cycles passed, making the fees less noticeable to consumers. The complaint also alleged that FleetCor’s invoices did not disclose that any fees were being charged, requiring customers to proactively view other account management reports. Even on those documents, many fees were obscured among other information or not listed at all. In 2023, a federal district court entered summary judgment for the FTC on all counts, finding that FleetCor had charged its customers hidden or otherwise unauthorized fees and misrepresented the gas savings and fees associated with FleetCor’s fuel cards. The court-imposed order permanently prohibits FleetCor from: billing a customer for any charge unless FleetCor has obtained the customer’s express informed consent and provided clear and unavoidable information about the charge; hiding material information about a charge behind a hyperlink; and making deceptive claims about its fuel cards. In 2026, a federal appeals court upheld the summary judgment against FleetCor on all counts and affirmed the permanent injunction against it.  The court affirmed the judgment against Clarke on all but one count and vacated the injunction as to Clarke.  As part of the settlement order with the FTC, FleetCor and Clarke will pay $100 million, which will be used to provide redress to the company’s business customers harmed by its practices. FleetCor and Clarke have also agreed not to oppose reimposition of a federal court injunction against Clarke.  The Commission vote to accept the consent agreement was 1-0-1. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson is recused. The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement in the Federal Register soon. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Instructions for filing comments will appear in the published notice. Once processed, comments will be posted on Regulations.gov. NOTE: When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to","id":3160549},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"Today, 22 states joined the Federal Trade Commission in filing suit against Amazon, alleging that the company engaged in deceptive and unfair practices that secretly inflated prices in its online search advertising auctions. The complaint   alleges that, for over seven years, Amazon has covertly and substantially increased the prices that more than one million brands and sellers were required to pay to advertise on its platform. As a result, the complaint alleges that Amazon’s scheme has likely extracted tens of billions of dollars from its unwitting advertising customers. “When one of the world’s largest online retailers engages in unfair and deceptive conduct, the impact can be staggering,” said Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers. The FTC under President Trump won’t allow this deception to continue.” The FTC, along with the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington, allege Amazon has imposed undisclosed surcharges on its advertising customers, which include over 500,000 small- and medium-sized businesses that participated in auctions for advertising placements on Amazon.com and its mobile app. In these auctions, prospective advertisers bid to place Sponsored Product ads, Sponsored Brands ads and Display Ads alongside the results that appear when a consumer searches for a product using a keyword on Amazon’s store. Placements are auctioned to the highest-ranked bidder for each keyword. As described in the complaint, Amazon has represented to prospective advertisers for years that Amazon runs “second price” auctions where the winner of the auction would only pay “one cent more than the next highest bidder” for each successful bid for an advertising keyword. However, in practice, the complaint alleges that Amazon has charged its Sponsored Products advertisers their own winning bid close to 80% of the time and has effectively converted its nominally “second price” auction into a first price auction. According to the complaint, Amazon’s “second price” auctions have been described by Amazon, and understood by advertisers, to be run as generalized second-price, or GSP auctions, which have been the accepted industry standard for digital advertising placements. The complaint states that Amazon has made these or similar representations on its website, in training videos and in other public-facing materials, as well as in presentations made to advertisers by its hundreds of sales personnel.  The type of auction matters to advertisers because it impacts how they bid. In a sealed first-price auction—the type of auction where winners pay the amount of their winning bid—bidders run the risk that they might overbid. So, in repetitive auctions for the same goods, they will often reduce their bid to determine what the minimum amount needed to win future auctions might be. This is called bid shading. In second-price auctions, bidders are more likely to bid higher, closer to their true value for the product, because they will only be liable to pay the least bid amount needed to win under the auction’s rules.  As alleged in the complaint, Amazon told advertisers it ran a GSP, but for years its auction pricing had “a surcharge hidden in it,” in the words of one internal Amazon document. The complaint alleges that, beginning in 2019, Amazon changed its auction rules without notice by adding an undisclosed surcharge that Amazon referred to internally as a “soft reserve price.” This resulted in advertisers paying substantially more than the price determined by the GSP auction.  According to the complaint, Amazon","id":3127461,"titre":"FTC, States Sue Amazon Over Secret Ad Surcharge Scheme","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-states-sue-amazon-over-secret-ad-surcharge-scheme","pubDate":"Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:10:10 +0200"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":3120376,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission finalized orders requiring Cox Media Group (CMG) and two other firms to pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations they deceived customers by falsely claiming to offer an AI-powered service that could target localized ads based on conversations captured from consumers’ smart devices and that consumers had opted into such targeting. In three separate complaints first announced in May , the FTC alleged that Georgia-based media and marketing company CMG Media Corporation, which does business as  Cox Media Group , and two marketing firms it worked with, New Hampshire-based MindSift LLC  and Wisconsin-based  1010 Digital Works LLC ,  deceived customers by claiming they used a special algorithm to listen in on and detect pertinent conversations from smart devices in order to target ads to consumers within a specific geographic region. Contrary to these companies’ claims, however, the marketing service wasn’t based on voice data, and consumers hadn’t opted into this service. If the service had functioned as advertised, this collection and use of consumers’ voice data without adequate consent would itself violate the FTC Act. Under the proposed orders settling the FTC’s allegations,  CMG must pay $880,000 while both  MindSift and  1010 Digital Works  must each pay $25,000, which will be used to provide redress to CMG customers impacted by these practices. In addition, each defendant is prohibited from making any misrepresentation about the qualities or features of its advertising or marketing services; the collection and use of voice data and whether consumers have provided their consent to collect, use or disclose their voice data; and the geographic targeting capabilities of its advertising or marketing services. After receiving two comments on the proposed settlement orders, the Commission voted 2-0 to give final approval to the consent","pubDate":"Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:07:59 +0200","titre":"FTC Finalizes Orders with Cox Media Group, Two Other Firms Settling Charges They Deceived Customers About “Active Listening” AI-Powered Marketing Service","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-finalizes-orders-cox-media-group-two-other-firms-settling-charges-they-deceived-customers-about"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":3118417,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today announced new fees for telemarketers to access phone numbers on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry for Fiscal Year 2027 which begins on October 1, 2026. All telemarketers calling consumers in the United States are required to download the numbers on the National DNC Registry to ensure they do not call consumers who have registered their phone numbers. The first five area codes are free to download, and organizations that are exempt, such as some charities and political callers, may obtain the entire list for free. Telemarketers must subscribe each year for access to the Registry numbers. The cost of accessing a single area code in the registry will be $85 in FY 2027, which is an increase of $3 from FY 2026. The maximum charge to any single entity for accessing all area codes nationwide will be $23,425 (up from $22,626 in FY 2026). The fee for accessing an additional area code for a half year will increase to $43 in FY 2027 from $41 in FY 2026. The Commission vote authorizing publication of the Federal Register notice announcing the new fees was 2-0. Note:  The new fees will go into effect on October 1,","pubDate":"Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:03:44 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-announces-2027-telemarketer-fees-access-national-do-not-call-registry","titre":"FTC Announces 2027 Telemarketer Fees to Access the National Do Not Call Registry"},{"description":"20261920: America First Federal Credit Union; Greater Nevada Credit Union Date August 20, 2026 bacree August 21, 2026 | 10:21AM Transaction Number 20261920 Acquiring Party America First Federal Credit Union Acquired Party Greater Nevada Credit Union Granting Status Granted Acquired Entities Greater Nevada Credit","id":3111223,"source":"HSR Early Termination Notices","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/early-termination-notices/20261920","titre":"20261920: America First Federal Credit Union; Greater Nevada Credit Union","pubDate":"Sat, 22 Aug 2026 14:01:29 +0200"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network Inc. (Celsius), and his business partners, Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein, will pay a total of $16.5 million to resolve the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that they deceived users by falsely promising that deposits made to their cryptocurrency platform would be safe and always available. Mashinsky and Leon have also agreed to a ban on marketing or selling products or services that can be used to deposit, exchange, invest or withdraw assets. Similarly, Goldstein has agreed to a ban on marketing or selling retail products or services that can be used to buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, distribute or trade cryptocurrency. In its  July 2023 complaint , the FTC alleged that Celsius and its co-founders promised consumers that Celsius was “safer” than a bank or other traditional financial institutions and misrepresented that their deposits were safe because Celsius earned profits at “no risk” to consumers by making secured loans to other exchanges. The FTC says the company and its top executives deceived users by falsely promising them that they could withdraw their deposits at any time, that the company maintained a $750 million insurance policy for deposits, that it had sufficient reserves to meet customer obligations and that those in its Earn program could earn rewards as high as 18% annual percentage yield on deposits. They also repeatedly claimed that the company did not make any unsecured loans. The FTC, however, alleged that the promises were false and that its top executives continued to claim that customers’ deposits were safe days before the company filed for bankruptcy. The settlement orders with the FTC require Mashinsky to pay $10 million, Leon to pay $4.1 million and Goldstein to pay $2.4 million. In addition,  the order with Mashinsky ,  the order with Leon ,   and the proposed order with Goldstein   will also prohibit the Celsius co-founders from: Marketing or selling products or services that can be used to deposit or withdraw certain assets, as Mashinsky, Leon and Goldstein’s deceptive conduct led to enormous consumer injury; Making misrepresentations regarding the benefits of any product or service or any other material fact about any other product or service; and Violating the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, including by obtaining or attempting to obtain customer financial information by making false, fictitious or fraudulent representations; and Finally, the orders with Mashinsky and Leon prohibit them from disclosing nonpublic personal information about consumers unless the consumer first provides express informed consent. The Commission vote approving the stipulated final order with Mashinsky was 3–0 and was approved prior to the departure of former Commissioner Melissa Holyoak. The Commission votes approving the stipulated final orders with Leon and Goldstein were both 2–0. The FTC filed the proposed orders in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Stipulated final orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court Judge. The staff attorneys on this matter are Stephanie Liebner, Carlton Mosley and Sally Tieu of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer","id":3042974,"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/07/founders-celsius-network-ordered-pay-165-million-resolve-ftc-charges","titre":"Founders of Celsius Network Ordered to Pay $16.5 Million to Resolve FTC Charges","pubDate":"Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:04:33 +0200"},{"pubDate":"Fri, 03 Jul 2026 08:06:27 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/07/ftc-approves-final-order-against-publishingcom-settling-allegations-it-misled-consumers","titre":"FTC Approves Final Order Against Publishing.com, Settling Allegations It Misled Consumers","id":3004264,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order with Publishing.com LLC and its two principals, settling allegations that they misled consumers about how much money consumers were likely to earn using their self-publishing products. Under the order finalized by the Commission, Publishing.com and its principals, CEO Christian Mikkelsen and Chief Product Officer Rasmus Mikkelsen, will pay $1.5 million and be required to substantiate earnings claims in the future. In a complaint first announced in April 2026, the FTC alleged that Publishing.com claimed its programs and services would help consumers earn substantial income publishing e-books and audiobooks online. The FTC further alleged that Christian and Rasmus Mikkelsen claimed that they personally used this system to obtain significant wealth through online self-publishing. The FTC alleged, however, that most consumers who bought Publishing.com’s products and services never made the income the company promised in its advertising. Consumers who sought refunds discovered that Publishing.com imposed many additional conditions, which were often buried in fine print or the company’s lengthy terms of service, that made it difficult or impossible for consumers to get their money back. The FTC’s complaint further alleged that the company failed to disclose when reviews were written by company employees or other interested people, including relatives of the Mikkelsens, and that the company offered incentives to people for providing positive testimonials. The final order approved by the Commission prohibits Publishing.com and the Mikkelsens from: Making earnings claims unless they are not misleading and they have a reasonable basis to support them; Making the specific misrepresentations detailed in the complaint, as well as misrepresentations concerning material facts in the sale of any product or service; Failing to disclose terms and conditions of any cancellation or refund policy or failing to promptly honor a consumer’s cancellation or refund request in accordance with company policies; and Making misrepresentations regarding endorsements and reviews. The final order also requires the company and the Mikkelsens to disclose any unexpected material connections with endorsers or reviewers and any payments or other incentives for posting reviews. The Commission voted 2-0 to finalize the order and sent responses to the five","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"Amazon will pay $2.25 million in civil penalties to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the online retail giant knowingly violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by refusing to provide transaction records to consumers whose personal information was used by identity thieves to commit fraud. The complaint , filed by the Department of Justice upon notification and referral from the FTC, alleged that in numerous instances, Amazon.com Inc. failed to comply with Section 609(e) of the FCRA, which requires companies to, within 30 days of a consumer’s request, provide victims of identity theft with application and business transaction records about fraudulent transactions made in their names. According to the complaint, Amazon had no written policy to respond to Section 609(e) requests until early 2025, after it learned of the FTC’s investigation, despite prior outreach from FTC staff advising the company to review its compliance with Section 609(e). “Amazon often put identity theft victims through a Kafkaesque ordeal by demanding they identify the thief who stole their information before Amazon would release the records the law entitles them to—records that could help victims protect themselves and recover from the fraudulent conduct,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will not allow companies to simply ignore their legal obligations, especially those designed to support and protect identity theft victims.” Many consumers who contacted Amazon to report fraud were told by its customer service agents that they could not provide the requested records for “security” or “privacy” reasons, the complaint alleged. For example, one consumer reported that when they contacted Amazon seeking business records related to unauthorized charges stemming from a fraudulent account, a company representative said they could not share details about the other account that had used the consumer’s credit card for “security reasons” unless the consumer guessed the name on the account (the name used by the identity thief), which the consumer was unable to do after making 30 attempts. The complaint alleged that in other instances, Amazon agents told consumers they were not able to access the requested records. Amazon even refused to provide application and business transaction records to law enforcement agencies who had been authorized to, and who did, submit requests to Amazon on behalf of consumers who were victims of identity theft. Some frustrated consumers resorted to sending copies of the FCRA and FTC guidance to Amazon in hopes of receiving the requested records, but Amazon still failed to comply with the law. The complaint also alleged that in some cases where Amazon ultimately provided requested records, it failed to respond to consumers within the 30-day timeframe required by the FCRA. In addition to the $2.25 million civil penalty—a record for a Section 609(e) violation—the proposed order will prohibit Amazon from failing to comply with Section 609(e) of the FCRA, requiring the company to provide the records lawfully requested by identity theft victims and law enforcement agencies acting on their behalf. The order also requires Amazon to provide notice to consumers about how identity theft victims can request records under the FCRA. The company must also contact consumers who had requested records since April 2024 from Amazon but did not receive them to inform these consumers that it may have additional records and that the consumers may request those records from Amazon. This is the second case the FTC has brought using its authority under Section 609(e) of the FCRA. The FTC announced its first case involving a violation of Section 609(e) of the FCRA in 2020 against Kohl’s Department Stores Inc . The Commission voted 2-0 to authorize the staff to refer the complaint to the DOJ and to approve the proposed stipulated order. The DOJ filed the complaint and final","id":2997627,"titre":"FTC Requires Amazon to Pay $2.25 Million to Resolve Charges It Knowingly Violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-requires-amazon-pay-225-million-resolve-charges-it-knowingly-violated-fair-credit-reporting-act","pubDate":"Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:09:43 +0200"},{"titre":"FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-data-show-people-reported-losing-3-point-5-billion-imposter-scams-2025","pubDate":"Tue, 16 Jun 2026 08:09:40 +0200","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"New data from the Federal Trade Commission reveal that people reported losing a staggering $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, with reported losses increasing nearly three times since 2020. FTC data also show that people reported imposter scams more than any other fraud category in 2025—nearly one in three fraud reports were about imposter scams. These scams lured consumers through text, phone, email, social media, search engine results and other means. Some of the costliest impersonation scams start with a fake security alert, often from a bank. People are convinced to move money to “protect” it, with their losses often limited only by their available funds. Last year, people reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators with the highest reported losses to bank impersonators—and about $920 million to government impersonators, up from $866 million and $789 million respectively in 2024. The FTC has seen a striking increase in reported fraud losses to all types of fraud—about $16 billion was reported lost in 2025, the highest on record and an increase of about 25% compared to the 2024 figure. “Consumers derive enormous benefits from competitive markets built on truthful information. But fraud undermines that foundation, impeding the market process and preventing markets from operating efficiently,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will use every tool available to combat one of the most pernicious forms of fraud—government and business impersonation—and to protect the integrity of the digital economy.” The data underscore the importance of the FTC’s work with the  Elder Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC) , which is working to help raise awareness of imposter scams and other scams impacting older adults as well as other consumers. This year, the FTC, along with the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and members of the EJCC, is leading the Never Ever campaign, a public-private coordinated consumer education effort to raise awareness of government and business imposter scams. In addition to the federal agency members of the EJCC , the campaign also includes private sector representatives such as the American Bankers Association, USTelecom, Google and Microsoft. To help the public spot imposter scams, EJCC members launched the Never Ever campaign, which is aimed at promoting messaging on the key actions that government and businesses will Never Ever take. The Never Ever campaign will run from June 15 to June 26, in conjunction with World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. This first-of-its-kind public-private partnership includes participants from a wide range of organizations and is aimed at directing consumers to a website that includes information and resources to help them avoid imposter scams and what to do if they spot one. Enforcement Actions To help combat impersonation scams, the FTC in 2024 finalized the Impersonation Rule. The Rule gives the agency stronger tools to combat and deter scammers who impersonate government agencies and businesses, enabling the FTC to file federal court cases seeking to get money back to injured consumers and civil penalties against rule violators. Since then, the FTC has vigorously enforced the rule and brought a dozen enforcement actions that have resulted in halting imposter schemes and obtained over $70 million in redress for consumers. In 2025, the FTC brought law enforcement actions under the Impersonation Rule against:  American Tax Service (IRS imposter scheme);  MediaAlpha (government imposter scheme to sell health insurance);  Click Profit (business imposter money making scam);  Blackstone Legal (phantom debt business imposter scheme) and  Accelerated Debt Settlement (government and business imposter scheme that targeted older adults for debt relief). More recently, the  FTC filed a complaint against Innovative Partners in April 2026 , alleging the operators","id":2959787},{"description":"The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on a petition from X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, to set aside or modify its 2022 settlement order with the agency . In its petition to the Commission, X Corp. cited several reasons why it believes that the order should either be set aside or modified so that it terminates at the end of 2026. The petition argues: The order was imposed on a company that no longer exists, that every individual responsible for the underlying failures has left the company and that X Corp. has since built a world-class privacy and data-protection program; The order no longer serves any valid regulatory purpose, imposing millions of dollars in needless costs to address obligations and protections already required by domestic and international privacy regimes and industry-recognized frameworks that X Corp. follows; Setting aside the order safeguards First Amendment values; and Setting aside or modifying the order is critical to advancing American leadership in artificial intelligence. The public will have 30 days, until July 2, 2026, to submit comments on the petition . Instructions for filing comments appear on the docket. Once processed, they will be posted on  Regulations.gov . After the comment period closes, the Commission will vote to determine how to resolve the","id":2930078,"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","titre":"FTC Seeks Comment on X Corp. Petition to Set Aside or Modify FTC Order Concerning Twitter","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-seeks-comment-x-corp-petition-set-aside-or-modify-ftc-order-concerning-twitter","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:08:22 +0200"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":2896369,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters today to a dozen websites advising them of their obligation to comply with the TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA), which requires platforms to give people a way to request the removal of intimate photos or videos shared online without their consent, and to remove the intimate photos or videos within 48 hours of a valid request. “Today we’re demonstrating just how serious we are about protecting the public, especially children, from abusive online conduct,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “Platforms no longer have any excuses—they must comply with their obligations under the TAKE IT DOWN Act or face the consequences.” The warning letters were sent to 12 companies that offer so-called “nudify” tools that allow people to take a clothed image of an individual and remove the individual’s clothing to create nonconsensual and sexualized images. The letters note that these companies appear to be in violation of TIDA by failing to provide individuals with a process through which victims can request the removal of nonconsensual intimate images appearing on their platforms. The letters urge the companies to “immediately come into compliance” with the law. Those that fail to do so could face legal action from the FTC, which could result in civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation. The FTC began enforcing the law on May 19. TIDA, which was championed by First Lady Melania Trump and signed into law by President Donald Trump in May 2025, gave businesses one year to come into compliance with the law’s requirements. Chairman Ferguson sent letters last week to major platforms— Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok and X —reminding businesses of their obligation to comply fully with TIDA. The FTC also issued guidance for businesses about how to ensure they are complying with the","pubDate":"Thu, 21 May 2026 08:07:59 +0200","titre":"FTC Sends Warning Letters to Companies About Compliance with the TAKE IT DOWN Act","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/05/ftc-sends-warning-letters-companies-about-compliance-take-it-down-act"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":2893630,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today began enforcing the TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA), a law requiring platforms, at the request of victims, to remove intimate photos or videos shared online without victims’ consent. As part of its enforcement role, the FTC has launched TakeItDown.ftc.gov , a website allowing victims and survivors to submit complaints about platforms that have failed to act on valid requests for the removal of nonconsensual intimate images. The website also accepts complaints about platforms that have failed to create a process for people to request removal of these images. “Thanks to First Lady Melania Trump’s dedication, the public, especially children, will have recourse against digital exploitation and extortion,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “In the age of AI, anyone can be targeted, and that becomes even more appalling if children are involved. The TAKE IT DOWN Act empowers families and provides the FTC with an effective tool to protect minors against this form of abuse.” The FTC enforces Section 3 of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which set a May 19, 2026, deadline for covered platforms to give people a way to request the removal of intimate photos or videos shared online without their consent and to remove those intimate images, and known identical copies, within 48 hours of a valid request. The FTC has published new guidance to help consumers in the event that nonconsensual intimate images of them are posted online. The FTC also issued  guidance for businesses about how to ensure they are complying with the law. Underscoring the FTC’s commitment, Chairman Ferguson  sent letters last week to major platforms—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok and X—reminding them of businesses’ obligation to comply fully with TIDA no later than May 19,","pubDate":"Wed, 20 May 2026 08:10:24 +0200","titre":"FTC Begins Enforcing the TAKE IT DOWN Act","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/05/ftc-begins-enforcing-take-it-down-act"},{"id":2878537,"description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson sent letters today to more than a dozen prominent technology companies reminding businesses of their obligation to comply fully with the Take It Down Act (TIDA) no later than May 19. Signed into law last year by President Donald J. Trump with the strong support of First Lady Melania Trump, TIDA requires covered platforms to establish a process allowing victims, including children, to request removal of intimate photos or videos shared without their consent.  The letters were sent to major platforms , including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok and X. The letters state the definitions and requirements of the law, along with the penalties for non-compliance. “We stand ready to monitor compliance, investigate violations, and enforce the Take It Down Act,” said Chairman Ferguson. “Protecting the vulnerable—especially children—from this harmful abuse is a top priority for this agency and this administration. The Trump-Vance FTC is grateful for the First Lady’s leadership on the Take It Down Act and on children’s issues.”  The letter specifies that covered platforms must provide clear and conspicuous notice about the removal process. They must also take down the nonconsensual images, and all identical copies, within 48 hours of receiving a valid request. Under the law, “covered platforms” include various websites, apps and online services, such as social media, messaging, image or video sharing and gaming platforms. The FTC also has issued guidance about what companies should do as they prepare to comply with","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","pubDate":"Tue, 12 May 2026 08:07:00 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/05/ftc-chairman-ferguson-advises-companies-comply-take-it-down-act","titre":"FTC Chairman Ferguson Advises Companies to Comply with the Take It Down Act"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":2872878,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission will co-host a workshop on May 14-15, 2026, with George Mason University Law School’s Institute for Consumer Financial Choice (ICFC) focusing on developments in the financial services marketplace in the five years since the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. The event’s first day, which will be led by the FTC, will feature opening remarks   from Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as ICFC Co-Directors   Todd Zywicki and Tom Miller.   It will also include two panel discussions focused on innovations in the financial services marketplace and on the implications for consumers, businesses, and regulators of new products and tech applications. The second day, led by the ICFC, will feature three panel discussions focused on the findings of a report from the Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. The event is free and open to the public and will take place in person at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School at  3301 Fairfax Drive Arlington, Va. 22201 .  Registration is required to attend in person. The event will also be livestreamed: May 14 livestream May 15","pubDate":"Fri, 08 May 2026 08:06:06 +0200","titre":"FTC to Co-Host Workshop on Financial Services with Institute for Consumer Financial Choice on May 14-15","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/05/ftc-co-host-workshop-financial-services-institute-consumer-financial-choice-may-14-15"},{"id":2826725,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today announced it is seeking public comment on whether a rule is needed to address unfair or deceptive fee practices in connection with the services provided by online food and grocery delivery platforms nationwide. As detailed in an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to be published shortly in the Federal Register, the FTC is seeking written comments, including data, evidence, analyses, and arguments, to help determine how best to prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices and to ensure that the agency addresses concerns from both consumers and industry. “Online grocery fees that are unclear, inconsistently disclosed, or revealed only at the last moment before consumers make a purchase distort competition and harm consumers,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Clear and truthful pricing is essential to competitive markets. The Commission’s enforcement track record suggests that consumers continue to face a suite of fees that prevent them from making informed comparisons. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to addressing unlawful grocery delivery pricing that obscures the true cost of groceries.” Unfair or deceptive fee practices violate the FTC Act. The Commission recently brought several actions against online food delivery platforms for unfair or deceptive practices that violated the FTC Act. For example, in December 2025, the FTC announced a $60 million settlement with  Instacart over allegations it falsely advertised “free delivery” on consumers’ first three orders on the platform and then charged them service fees that were not disclosed until checkout. And, in December 2024, the FTC obtained a $25 million settlement with  GrubHub over allegations it misled consumers about the cost of delivery on its platform. These cases illustrate that hidden and misleading fees and charges are a recurring problem related to online delivery platforms, despite enforcement actions to protect consumers’ interests. Also, while numerous states have recently adopted laws requiring food and grocery delivery platforms to more clearly disclose fees and include all mandatory fees in advertised prices, they have not adopted uniform rules that apply to all food delivery platforms across the country. The ANPRM asks the public to comment on whether a rule is needed to prevent unfair or deceptive fee practices in connection with online food delivery services including: Total Price. Do food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose the total price for food or grocery items ordered for local delivery or pickup? Fees and Charges. Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose the existence, nature, purpose, refundability, or recipient of any fees, charges, or other costs for a delivery or pickup order? Variable or Contingent Fees . Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose factors used to determine any fees, charges, or other costs that are variable or contingent on consumer selections, such as number or type of items bought or delivery location? Material Restrictions. Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose whether fees, charges, or other costs are mandatory or optional, or any material restrictions, limitations, or restrictions that may result in additional charges or that may diminish the consumer’s use of the good or service? Price Differentials. Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose whether the prices of items ordered are the same as, or different from, the prices of the same items offered in the store or restaurant? Personalized Pricing.  Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose whether the prices of items ordered are the same as, or different from, the prices of the same items offered to other consumers on the platform? Discounts or Promotions. Do online food delivery platforms clearly and conspicuously disclose material","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","pubDate":"Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:10:57 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/04/ftc-seeks-public-comment-unfair-deceptive-fee-practices-online-food-grocery-delivery-services","titre":"FTC Seeks Public Comment on Unfair and Deceptive Fee Practices in Online Food and Grocery Delivery Services"},{"titre":"StubHub Refunding $10 Million in Fees to Consumers After Deceptive Ticket Pricing","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/04/stubhub-refunding-10-million-fees-consumers-after-deceptive-ticket-pricing","pubDate":"Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:08:44 +0200","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"StubHub, the nation’s largest ticket exchange and resale ticket provider, will pay $10 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company violated the FTC Act and the agency’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees by deceptively advertising ticket prices on its website without clearly and conspicuously disclosing up-front how much consumers actually would pay, including all mandatory fees. “The Commission’s Fees Rule makes it very clear that the total price of live-event tickets must be disclosed up-front to enable consumers to make fully informed purchasing decisions,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Price transparency is essential to a free and competitive marketplace. Today’s settlement underscores the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that consumers pay the price they are promised.” The FTC’s action against StubHub Holdings, Inc., follows a  warning letter the agency sent the online ticket platform in May 2025 stating that multiple prices displayed on its website appeared to be in violation of the Fees Rule. Under the Rule, which took effect on May 12, 2025 , it is an unfair and deceptive practice for any business to offer, display, or advertise the price of a live-event ticket without clearly, conspicuously, and most prominently disclosing the total price, which the Rule defines as “the maximum total of all fees or charges a consumer must pay for any good(s) or service(s) and any mandatory ancillary good or service.” Misrepresenting prices also violates the FTC Act. Today’s action also follows the Administration’s recent Executive Order on Ticketing , which includes a directive for the FTC to “take appropriate action . . . to ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.” According to the Commission’s complaint , in mid-May 2025—after the Rule went into effect—StubHub advertised its ticket prices without disclosing the full price consumers would actually pay by failing to include mandatory fees and to disclose the total price everywhere it displayed prices. Specifically, the FTC alleges StubHub failed to provide the total price for tickets—including high-demand National Football League tickets in the lead-up to when the NFL schedule was announced on May 14, 2025—in the first three pricing displays on its website. On the initial two pricing displays, in numerous instances, the advertised price did not include all mandatory fees, and StubHub did not disclose the total price. On the third pricing display, StubHub listed multiple fees and charges but did not disclose the total price. The proposed order settling StubHub’s alleged violations of the FTC Act and the Fees Rule requires the company to pay $10 million, which the company will use to provide monetary relief to eligible consumers through a settlement and consumer redress distribution program. The order also prohibits StubHub from misrepresenting the total price of any good or service; any fee or charge, including its nature, purpose, amount, or refundability, as well as why the fee or charge is being imposed; the final payment amount for any transaction; and any other material fact including those related to refunds or cancellations. The proposed order also prohibits StubHub from: Offering, displaying, or advertising any price of a good or service without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the total price; Failing to disclose the total price more prominently than any other pricing information; Failing to clearly and conspicuously disclose the amount of any fees or charges that have been excluded from the total price and what they are for, as well as the final payment amount—before the consumer agrees to pay for a product or service; and Violating the Commission’s Fees Rule. Within 90 days of the date of the order StubHub must provide redress to two groups of eligible","id":2818173},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","description":"The Federal Trade Commission issued a policy statement today announcing that the Commission will not bring an enforcement action under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) against certain website and online service operators that collect, use, and disclose personal information for the sole purpose of determining a user’s age via age verification technologies. The COPPA Rule requires operators of commercial websites or online services directed to children under 13, and operators with actual knowledge they are collecting personal information from a child, to provide notice of their information practices to parents and to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information collected from a child under 13. Age verification technologies play a critical role in helping parents as they monitor their children’s online activities. Since COPPA was enacted in 1998, there’s been an explosion in the use of internet-connected technologies by children. To help parents navigate the challenges associated with their children’s online activities, some states have started requiring some websites and online services to use age verification mechanisms to help determine the age of users. But as noted at the FTC’s recent workshop on age verification technologies , some age verification technologies may require the collection of personal information from children, prompting questions about whether such activities could violate the COPPA Rule. “Age verification technologies are some of the most child-protective technologies to emerge in decades,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Our statement incentivizes operators to use these innovative tools, empowering parents to protect their children online.” The policy statement states that the Commission will not bring an enforcement action under the COPPA Rule against operators of general audience sites and services and mixed audience sites and services that collect, use, or disclose personal information for the sole purpose of determining a user’s age without first obtaining verifiable parental consent—if they comply with certain conditions, specifically that they: do not use or disclose information collected for age verification purposes for any purpose except to determine a user’s age; do not retain this information longer than necessary to fulfill the age verification purposes, and delete such information promptly thereafter; disclose information collected for age verification purposes only to those third parties the operator has taken reasonable steps to determine are capable of maintaining the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the information, including by obtaining certain written assurances from those third parties; provide clear notice to parents and children of the information collected for age verification purposes; employ reasonable security safeguards for information collected for age verification purposes; and take reasonable steps to determine that any product, service, method, or third party utilized for age verification purposes is likely to provide reasonably accurate results as to the user’s age. The policy statement indicates that the Commission intends to initiate a review of the COPPA Rule to address age verification mechanisms. The policy statement will remain effective until the Commission publishes final rule amendments on this issue in the Federal Register, or until otherwise withdrawn. The Commission vote to issue the policy statement was 2-0. The lead staffer on this matter is Manmeet Dhindsa from the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer","id":2721034,"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/02/ftc-issues-coppa-policy-statement-incentivize-use-age-verification-technologies-protect-children","titre":"FTC Issues COPPA Policy Statement to Incentivize the Use of Age Verification Technologies to Protect Children Online","pubDate":"Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:21:56 +0100"},{"pubDate":"Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:48:14 +0100","titre":"FTC is Sending Nearly $23 Million to Consumers Who Invested in the Deceptive Sanctuary Belize and Kanantik Real Estate Development Schemes","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/02/ftc-sending-nearly-23-million-consumers-who-invested-deceptive-sanctuary-belize-kanantik-real-estate","id":2679350,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission is returning nearly $23 million to consumers nationwide who bought deceptively marketed overseas real estate lots in what the sellers pitched as Sanctuary Belize, a supposed luxury development in southern, coastal Belize, as well as its nearby sister development, Kanantik. The FTC is mailing 1,659 checks to defrauded investors. The average amount of each check for Sanctuary Belize consumers is $16,462 and the average amount of each check for Kanantik consumers is $6,346.39. Today’s announcement represents the second mailing to consumers who invested in the Sanctuary Belize scheme, with approximately  $10 million distributed previously . The first round of checks was sent only to consumers who bought property within Sanctuary Belize. Today’s checks are going to both Sanctuary Belize investors, as well as consumers who invested in Kanantik, a related development owned and operated by some of the Sanctuary Belize defendants, and other areas covered by the court relief in this case. In November 2018, the FTC filed a complaint charging that Andris Pukke, a prior FTC defendant, and several other corporate and individual defendants deceived consumers who invested in Sanctuary Belize by promising they were investing in a luxury development and resort. The defendants, however, failed to deliver on the promised amenities, and consumers who invested in Sanctuary property lost money and could not resell their lots. Following a trial in 2020, a federal court found that the defendants, who took in more than $100 million, duped consumers into buying Sanctuary Belize lots by falsely claiming it would be a safe investment, that the development would include luxury amenities and be completed soon, and that consumers could resell their lots. The defendants appealed,  but the Court of Appeals confirmed the deceptive scheme and the monetary judgment against Pukke and his associates, Peter Baker and John Usher. The District Court  ordered the receiver to send an initial round of payments , with the money coming from previous settlements. As part of a second round of payments, the Commission is sending a total of $22,865,008.34 to consumers. Checks totaling $20,028,170.25 are being sent to 1,202 claim applicants who invested in properties within Sanctuary Belize, and checks totaling $2,836,838.09 are being sent to 447 claim applicants who invested in properties in the Kanantik and other covered development areas. Consumers who receive checks in this second distribution should cash them within 60 days, as indicated on the check. Consumers with questions about their payments should email the redress administrator, Rust Consulting, which is being supported by Ankura Consulting Group, LLC, at Payment@SanctuaryBelizeRedress.com . Consumers with other questions about the Sanctuary Belize receivership can contact  info@sanctuarybelizereceivership.com . The application process for requesting a payment is closed, and the receiver is no longer accepting applications from consumers. Consumers can also visit the receivership website at  www.SanctuaryBelizeReceivership.com to find other resources such as","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers"},{"id":2667062,"description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson has appointed Levi Swank as Deputy Director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  Swank is an experienced consumer protection litigator who has represented clients in a wide variety of enforcement matters, class actions, and investigations. Prior to joining the FTC, Swank had spent his career in private practice at a large law firm in Washington, D.C., first as an associate and then as a partner. Swank holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Executive Editor of the Virginia Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. He also holds a B.A. in Government from Patrick Henry College. Following law school, Swank clerked for the Hon. Alice M. Batchelder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","pubDate":"Sat, 31 Jan 2026 09:46:37 +0100","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/federal-trade-commission-chairman-andrew-n-ferguson-appoints-deputy-director-bureau-consumer","titre":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson Appoints Deputy Director for Bureau of Consumer Protection"},{"id":2633494,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order with General Motors and OnStar settling allegations that they collected, used, and sold consumers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior data from millions of vehicles without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent. Under the order finalized by the Commission, General Motors LLC, General Motors Holdings LLC, and OnStar, LLC (collectively GM), which are owned by General Motors Company, are prohibited from sharing certain consumer data with consumer reporting agencies. They also are required to take steps to provide greater transparency and choice to consumers over the collection, use, and disclosure of their connected vehicle data. In a complaint first announced in January 2025, the FTC alleged that GM used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and OnStar Smart Driver feature. The FTC also alleged that GM failed to clearly disclose that it collected consumers’ precise geolocation and driving behavior data via the Smart Driver feature and sold it to third parties without consumers’ consent. The final order approved by the Commission imposes a five-year ban on GM disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies. This fencing-in relief is appropriate given GM’s egregious betrayal of consumers’ trust. And for the entire 20-year life of the order, GM will be required to: obtain affirmative express consent from consumers prior to collecting, using, or sharing connected vehicle data (including sharing data with consumer reporting agencies), with some exceptions such as for providing location data to emergency first responders; create a way for all U.S. consumers to request a copy of their data and seek its deletion; give consumers the ability to disable the collection of precise geolocation data from their vehicles if their vehicle has the necessary technology; and provide a way for consumers to opt out of the collection of geolocation and driver behavior data, with some limited exceptions. The Commission voted 2-0 to approve the final order and complaint as well as provide responses to","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","pubDate":"Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:52:25 +0100","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/ftc-finalizes-order-settling-allegations-gm-onstar-collected-sold-geolocation-data-without-consumers","titre":"FTC Finalizes Order Settling Allegations that GM and OnStar Collected and Sold Geolocation Data Without Consumers’ Informed Consent"},{"titre":"Instacart to Pay $60 Million in Consumer Refunds to Settle FTC Lawsuit Over Allegations it Engaged in Deceptive Tactics","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/instacart-pay-60-million-consumer-refunds-settle-ftc-lawsuit-over-allegations-it-engaged-deceptive","pubDate":"Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:48:21 +0100","description":"Today, the Federal Trade Commission announced that grocery delivery provider Instacart will pay $60 million in refunds to consumers to settle allegations that the company engaged in numerous unlawful tactics that harmed shoppers and raised the cost of grocery shopping for Americans. Instacart will be required to cease its deceptive practices under a proposed FTC order, and consumers who were charged for Instacart+ without their express informed consent will receive refunds as a result of the settlement. “Instacart misled consumers by advertising free delivery services—and then charging consumers to have groceries delivered—and failing to disclose to consumers that signed up for a free trial that they would be automatically enrolled into its subscription program,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC is focused on monitoring online delivery services to ensure that competitors are transparently competing on price and delivery terms.” The FTC has alleged that Instacart engaged in a variety of deceptive tactics that misled consumers and caused them to pay more in fees, while depriving consumers of refunds. Specifically, the FTC alleges that Instacart: Falsely advertised “free delivery” to consumers on their first order Instacart’s claims of “free delivery” are false because consumers still must pay a mandatory “service fee” to get their groceries delivered. These mandatory service fees add as much as 15% to the order cost and were not clearly disclosed to consumers. Falsely advertised a “100% satisfaction guarantee,” implying that it will provide full refunds when consumers are not fully satisfied Consumers who experience late deliveries or unprofessional service typically are not offered full refunds and instead are given only a small credit that can be used toward a future order. Instacart hid the refund option from the “self-service” menu that consumers use to report problems with their orders, leading many consumers to erroneously believe they could receive only a credit toward a future order rather than a refund. Failed to clearly disclose terms relating to Instacart+ membership enrollment Instacart’s free-trial enrollment process for Instacart+ did not adequately disclose that consumers would be charged for memberships at the end of their trials, nor did it disclose Instacart’s restrictive refund policy. As a result, Instacart has charged many consumers for paid memberships without their express informed consent. Hundreds of thousands of consumers have been charged membership fees without receiving benefits from the membership or getting refunds. Under the terms of the FTC’s proposed settlement order , Instacart will be prohibited from making misrepresentations concerning the costs of delivery services and satisfaction guarantees. Instacart must also clearly and conspicuously disclose the terms and obtain express informed consent for transactions involving subscription models where consumers are automatically charged unless they actively opt out. The Commission vote approving the stipulated final order was 2-0. The FTC filed the proposed order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. NOTE:  Stipulated final orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court","id":2582987,"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":2577895,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against Illusory Systems Inc. for failing to implement adequate data security measures, leading to a major security breach in which hackers stole $186 million from consumers. Under a proposed order settling the FTC’s allegations, Utah-based Illusory, which does business as Nomad, will be required to implement an information security program to address numerous alleged security failures and to return recovered money to affected consumers. “The FTC Act requires companies to take reasonable security measures,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “It’s important that companies live up to their security promises to consumers.” In its complaint , the FTC alleged that Nomad prominently touted its security in its advertising, claiming that it offered “security-first” services. The FTC, however, alleged that the company failed to live up to these promises by failing to: use secure coding practices; implement processes for receiving and addressing vulnerability reports and responding to security incidents; and utilize widely known technologies that might have helped mitigate consumer losses. According to the complaint, in June 2022, Nomad introduced inadequately tested code that included a significant vulnerability. Just over a month later, hackers began exploiting the vulnerability. The FTC alleged that Nomad failed to respond to the attack in time because of its inadequate security and incident response measures, which led to the loss of $186 million. The company was able to recover some money, but consumers lost approximately $100 million. Nomad was warned about the dangers of inadequate testing as well as the need to ensure it had adequate staff and security in place. The company, however, failed to implement basic safety measures that would mitigate consumer losses, the FTC alleged. Under the proposed order , Nomad will be prohibited from making misrepresentations about its security practices. In addition, the company will also be required to: Implement a comprehensive information security program that is designed to protect consumers from theft or other unauthorized access and address the security issues outlined in the FTC’s complaint; Obtain biennial assessments of its information security program by an independent third party and cooperate with the third-party assessor; and Return to consumers money recovered following the security breach that was not already returned to customers. The Commission voted 2-0 to accept the proposed complaint and order for public comment. The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register soon. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Instructions for filing comments will appear in the published notice. Once processed, comments will be posted on Regulations.gov. NOTE:  The Commission issues an administrative complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $51,744. The lead staff attorneys on this matter are M. Hasan Aijaz and Julia Horwitz with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer","pubDate":"Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:50:37 +0100","titre":"FTC Will Require Illusory Systems to Return Money Stolen by Hackers and Implement an Information Security Program","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/ftc-will-require-illusory-systems-return-money-stolen-hackers-implement-information-security-program"},{"pubDate":"Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:49:51 +0100","titre":"FTC Releases Annual Do Not Call Registry Data Book","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/ftc-releases-annual-do-not-call-registry-data-book","id":2567732,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today released the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2025 , which shows that, while overall complaints rose in FY 2025, unwanted calls remain about 48% lower than in FY 2021, when the FTC received approximately five million reports about unwanted calls. The FTC’s annual data book provides detailed information on robocall and live-caller complaints, the topics consumers report most often, and a state-by-state breakdown of registrations and complaints per 100,000 people. As in prior years, calls about reducing debt, imposters, and medical and prescription issues remained among the topics consumers most frequently reported in FY 2025. The National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry lets consumers add their phone numbers and opt out of most legal telemarketing calls. In FY 2025, more than 4.7 million additional phone numbers were added to the Registry, bringing the total to about 258.5 million active registrations as of September 30, 2025—an increase of roughly 1.9% over FY 2024 and nearly 6% higher than FY 2021. While DNC registrations grew modestly, complaints about robocalls, which involve a prerecorded message, continued to make up most DNC violation complaints. The data book also provides a state-by-state analysis of DNC registrations and complaints. As in previous years, New Hampshire continues to rank first in active DNC registrations per 100,000 people, followed by Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Kansas. In FY 2025, the top five states reporting the most DNC complaints per 100,000 people were: Arizona – 1,028 complaints per 100,000 people; Tennessee – 1,017 complaints per 100,000 people; Nevada – 960 complaints per 100,000 people; Illinois – 943 complaints per 100,000 people; and Florida – 933 complaints per 100,000 people. The underlying data in the report is publicly available on the  FTC’s data portal . Information for consumers about the DNC Registry, company-specific DNC requests, and caller ID requirements is available on the FTC’s website. Consumers can sign up for the Registry for free at DoNotCall.gov and find information about  how to protect themselves from unwanted calls. To report unwanted telemarketing calls, consumers can file a complaint at DoNotCall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222. Complaints, registration data, and telemarketer access information are shared with law enforcement through the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","id":2562491,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $27.6 million to consumers who were enrolled, without their knowledge, in plans where they were shipped and charged repeatedly for products marketed to promote weight loss, clear skin, and other healthcare benefits. According to  the FTC’s July 2024 complaint , defendants Legion Media, LLC, KP Commerce, LLC, Pinnacle Payments, LLC, Sloan Health Products, LLC, and their principals, operated two types of unauthorized billing scams. In the first, the FTC alleged that the defendants defrauded consumers who bought CBD and Keto-related products by charging them more than the advertised price and enrolling them in continuity plans without their consent in which they are charged for products they never intended or agreed to buy. Several defendants participated in a second scheme where consumers paid a small shipping fee for a supposedly free “gift.” However, after consumers used their credit and debit cards to pay the fee, they incurred recurring unauthorized charges on their cards. In September 2024,  the Commission announced settlements requiring the defendants to forfeit tens of millions of dollars in assets and permanently banning them from the alleged illegal conduct. The settlement orders also banned them from marketing or selling any product or service using a negative option feature. The FTC is sending checks and PayPal payments to 1,215,337 affected consumers between now and December 18, 2025. Most consumers will receive a check in the mail. Check recipients should cash their checks within 90 days, as indicated on the check. PayPal recipients should redeem their PayPal payments within 30 days. Consumers who have questions about their payment should contact the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, at 866-914-9330, or visit the FTC website to  view frequently asked questions  about the refund process. The Commission never requires people to pay money or provide account information to get a refund. The Commission’s  interactive dashboards for refund data  provide a state-by-state breakdown of refunds in FTC cases. In 2024, FTC actions led to more than $339 million in refunds to consumers across the","pubDate":"Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:52:09 +0100","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/ftc-sends-more-276-million-consumers-harmed-unauthorized-billing-schemes","titre":"FTC Sends More Than $27.6 Million to Consumers Harmed by Unauthorized Billing Schemes"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","description":"7-Eleven, Inc. and its parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., (collectively 7-Eleven) will pay $4.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging that the convenience store chain violated a 2018 FTC consent order by acquiring a fuel outlet in St. Petersburg, Fla. without providing the Commission prior notice. The $4.5 million penalty marks the largest civil penalty ever collected in an FTC case involving a prior-notice violation. It is also the largest negotiated settlement of any order violation in the FTC Bureau of Competition’s history. “Under the Trump-Vance FTC, merger remedies that protect competition are once again on the table. But for merger remedies to work, firms must abide by the terms of their consent orders, and we will hold parties accountable when they don’t live up to their commitments,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “7-Eleven failed to fulfill the terms of the FTC’s consent order and is now paying a record price. The FTC will not hesitate to protect the public by actively enforcing order violations and seeking penalties against future violators.” The settlement resolves an FTC lawsuit filed in 2023. That suit arose from a 2018 consent order to resolve the FTC’s antitrust claims that 7-Eleven’s $3.3 billion acquisition of 1,100 retail fuel outlets from Sunoco would harm competition and raise fuel prices for consumers in 76 local markets. In the consent order, 7-Eleven agreed to divest certain fuel outlets and to provide prior notice to the FTC before making future acquisitions of competing fuel outlets in the local markets. This prior notice allowed the FTC to investigate—and, if needed, file an enforcement action—if additional acquisitions by 7-Eleven harmed consumers in these local markets. The consent order specifically listed the St. Petersburg outlet as one that 7-Eleven could not acquire without providing the FTC with prior notice. According to the FTC’s complaint, 7-Eleven acquired the St. Petersburg fuel outlet in December 2018, in violation of the consent order. On March 25, 2022—over three years after 7-Eleven acquired the St. Petersburg outlet—7-Eleven first informed the Commission it had acquired the St. Petersburg outlet. The FTC found that 7-Eleven’s internal controls for ensuring compliance with the consent order were wholly inadequate and that the company failed to implement any meaningful systems to ensure compliance with the Commission order. In addition to the $4.5 million in civil penalties, 7-Eleven was required to divest the St. Petersburg outlet to a strong buyer. 7-Eleven also agreed to commit to additional prior approval and prior notice requirements, which will help ensure that the Commission is made aware of any attempts by 7-Eleven to further consolidate in the local fuel markets addressed in the FTC’s order.  The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the stipulated final judgment and order for permanent injunction and civil penalty was","id":2559842,"titre":"7-Eleven to Pay Record $4.5 Million Penalty to Settle FTC Antitrust Order Violation Case","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/7-eleven-pay-record-45-million-penalty-settle-ftc-antitrust-order-violation-case","pubDate":"Tue, 09 Dec 2025 09:50:02 +0100"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","id":2379473,"description":"On Tuesday, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson submitted recommendations for deleting or revising anticompetitive regulations across the entire federal government to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. This report is a response to President Trump’s Executive Order on Reducing Anticompetitive Regulatory Barriers . The Executive Order tasked the FTC with finding unnecessary regulations that exclude new market entrants, protect dominant incumbents, and predetermine economic winners and losers, as a first step to repealing them. “President Trump’s Executive Order recognizes that heavy-handed regulations can hurt competition, including by entrenching incumbent firms, raising costs for new entrants, and discouraging innovative new ways to serve customers,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Daniel Guarnera. “Competitive markets lower the cost of living, improve the quality of products and services, and drive innovation. Our engagement with citizens across the country and agencies across the federal government has underscored the importance of scrutinizing regulations to ensure that they don’t distort healthy, free-market competition.” Examples of anticompetitive regulations that the Chairman recommends for deletion or modification include: Biden-era Department of Transportation regulations that preference businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals” when awarding contracts for transportation projects, rather than allowing free competition on the merits. Department of Education regulations that permit colleges and universities to include the cost of textbooks and supplies as part of annual tuition, which thwarts students’ ability to save money by buying their textbooks through alternative channels. Proposed Biden-era Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations that would require table saws to use expensive finger-detection technology controlled by the sole patent holder. A Forest Service handbook that establishes eligibility requirements that inhibited entry from a younger generation of ranchers. The report is now under review at the Office of Management and Budget. The FTC will continue to work collaboratively with OMB and all of the relevant federal agencies to rescind or revise their regulations as","pubDate":"Thu, 18 Sep 2025 09:52:16 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/ftc-recommends-anticompetitive-regulations-deletion-or-revision","titre":"FTC Recommends Anticompetitive Regulations for Deletion or Revision"},{"titre":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson Appoints Emma Mittelstaedt Burnham as Associate Director for Healthcare","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/federal-trade-commission-chairman-andrew-n-ferguson-appoints-emma-mittelstaedt-burnham-associate","pubDate":"Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:48:50 +0200","description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson has appointed Emma Mittelstaedt Burnham as Associate Director for Healthcare in the Bureau of Competition. “I am delighted to appoint Emma as Associate Director for Healthcare in the Bureau of Competition. She is a talented attorney with many years of experience at the Department of Justice as a senior antitrust enforcer,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “Emma will be an invaluable champion in the FTC’s ongoing fight to protect Americans’ access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.” Emma has significant experience leading the investigation and prosecution of complex antitrust conduct cases, having spent 11 years as a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Most recently, she served as the Director of Criminal Enforcement, supervising the Antitrust Division’s price-fixing matters throughout the United States. She previously held the positions of Trial Attorney, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Assistant Chief, and Acting Chief. Her prior work as a senior DOJ antitrust official included prosecuting antitrust violations in the healthcare sector. She led the Antitrust Division’s investigation into antitrust cartels in the generic pharmaceutical industry, which resulted in significant corporate prosecutions including the largest criminal penalties ever imposed for domestic cartel offenses and the first use of divestiture in a criminal settlement. Before joining the DOJ Antitrust Division, Emma was a criminal defense associate at law firms in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. She graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School and Georgetown University and clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman in the Northern District of","id":2362099,"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","id":2298968,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today moved to block medical device supplier Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s (Edwards) proposed acquisition of JenaValve Technology, Inc. (JenaValve) due to concerns that the acquisition would limit patient access to lifesaving medical devices used to treat a potentially fatal heart condition. The FTC alleges that over the span of two days in July 2024, Edwards executed agreements to acquire both JenaValve and JC Medical, the two leading companies competing to bring to market transcatheter aortic valve replacement devices that treat a heart condition called aortic regurgitation (TAVR-AR devices). Edwards closed its acquisition of JC Medical in August 2024, and its proposed $945 million acquisition of JenaValve would combine the only two companies with ongoing clinical trials in the United States for a TAVR-AR device. The deal threatens to reduce competition in the TAVR-AR market, likely resulting in reduced innovation, diminished product quality, and potentially increased prices for consumers, according to the complaint. “ Edwards’ attempt to buy the U.S. market for TAVR-AR devices would eliminate the head-to-head competition that has spurred innovation for lifesaving artificial heart valves,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “The FTC is taking action to stop this anticompetitive deal and ensure that JenaValve and Edwards’ JC Medical subsidiary continue competing to innovate, expand treatment eligibility, and keep down costs. Americans deserve all the benefits that come from competition between medical device makers, just as they do in other markets.” More than 8 million Americans suffer from aortic regurgitation, which occurs when the heart’s aortic valve does not close properly, causing blood to backflow into the heart. Currently, surgical valve replacement via open heart surgery is the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved procedure to treat aortic regurgitation, and TAVR-AR devices offer a new and less invasive way to treat the condition. JenaValve is poised to become the first company to bring a TAVR-AR device, called Trilogy, to the commercial market in the United States. If Edwards acquires JenaValve, Edwards would gain control over the two most advanced TAVR-AR devices, the FTC complaint alleges. FDA approval or commercialization of any other TAVR-AR device in the United States by another company, aside from Edwards and JenaValve, is not expected for the foreseeable future. Direct head-to-head competition between Edwards, through its now-subsidiary JC Medical, and JenaValve has driven the two companies to accelerate the development of their TAVR-AR devices, the FTC’s complaint alleges. Ultimately, patients will benefit if JenaValve and Edwards continue to directly compete to complete their separate TAVR-AR device clinical trials, product improvements, and commercialization plans. The competition concerns caused by Edwards’ dual acquisition strategy are predicated on Edwards owning both JenaValve and JC Medical simultaneously, but Edwards has elected to attempt to buy JenaValve while retaining its ownership of JC Medical. Edwards has not been willing to engage on divesting JC Medical to resolve the competition concerns with the proposed JenaValve acquisition, according to the complaint. The Commission vote to issue an administrative complaint and authorize staff to seek a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction was 3-0. The federal court complaint and request for preliminary relief was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to halt the transaction pending an administrative proceeding. NOTE : The Commission issues an administrative complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The issuance of the administrative complaint marks the beginning of a proceeding in which the allegations will be tried in a formal","pubDate":"Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:48:21 +0200","titre":"FTC Challenges Anticompetitive Medical Device Deal","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/08/ftc-challenges-anticompetitive-medical-device-deal"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","id":2219987,"description":"WHAT:  The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, along with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Health and Human Services, will jointly host the first of three listening sessions focused on discussing ways to make prescription drugs more affordable for Americans by promoting competition. The first listening session will discuss anticompetitive conduct that impedes generic or biosimilar competition.  WHEN:  Monday, June 30, 2025, 2 pm E.T.  WHERE:   Attendance in-person is by invitation only, but the event is being  streamed online . Members of the public may  submit questions online .  WHO: The listening session will feature remarks by practitioners and","pubDate":"Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:49:54 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-doj-host-listening-session-lowering-americans-drug-prices-through-competition","titre":"FTC and DOJ Host Listening Session on Lowering Americans’ Drug Prices Through Competition"},{"pubDate":"Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:51:56 +0200","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-doj-host-listening-sessions-lowering-americans-drug-prices-through-competition","titre":"FTC and DOJ to Host Listening Sessions on Lowering Americans’ Drug Prices Through Competition","id":2174951,"description":"As part of implementing President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14273, Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First , the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, along with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Health and Human Services, will jointly host listening sessions to discuss ways to make prescription drugs more affordable for Americans by promoting competition. The three listening sessions will occur under the direction of FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater of the DOJ Antitrust Division. The listening sessions will focus on improving the affordability of pharmaceuticals by increasing generic and biosimilar availability and promoting competition through drug formularies and benefits. The sessions, which will feature remarks by practitioners and scholars, will cover anticompetitive practices as well as eliminating regulatory barriers and rent seeking . The listening sessions will inform the FTC and DOJ’s joint report on combatting anticompetitive practices in pharmaceutical markets, as mandated by President Trump’s Executive Order. The dates for the sessions are as follows: Monday, June 30 at 2 pm ET – Anticompetitive Conduct by Pharmaceutical Companies Impeding Generic or Biosimilar Competition Thursday, July 24 at 2 pm ET – Formulary and Benefit Practices and Regulatory Abuse Impacting Drug Competition Monday, August 4 at 2 pm ET – Turning Insights into Action to Reduce Drug Prices The listening sessions will be streamed on the FTC and DOJ websites, with videos and transcripts posted after the events. Additional information will be posted to the event page   prior to each session","source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson today congratulated Mark R. Meador on his confirmation to serve as an FTC Commissioner. “I am thrilled to welcome Mark to the Commission,” Chairman Ferguson said. “Mark is a brilliant antitrust lawyer who will be a great asset to the Trump-Vance FTC.” Meador was nominated on January 20, 2025 by President Trump to a term that will expire on September 25, 2031 and confirmed by the Senate on April 10, 2025. Meador most recently worked in private practice and as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation Tech Policy Center. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief Counsel for Antitrust and Competition Policy for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. During the first Trump Administration, Meador worked as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He began his career as an attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. Meador earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center and his undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of","id":2047232,"titre":"FTC Chairman Ferguson Congratulates Mark Meador on Confirmation as FTC Commissioner","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/04/ftc-chairman-ferguson-congratulates-mark-meador-confirmation-ftc-commissioner","pubDate":"Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:49:57 +0200"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","description":"The Federal Trade Commission’s initial findings from its surveillance pricing market study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services. The staff perspective is based on an examination of documents obtained by FTC staff’s 6(b) orders sent to  several companies in July aiming to better understand the shadowy market that third-party intermediaries use to set individualized prices for products and services based on consumers’ characteristics and behaviors, like location, demographics, browsing patterns and shopping history. Staff found that consumer behaviors ranging from mouse movements on a webpage to the type of products that consumers leave unpurchased in an online shopping cart can be tracked and used by retailers to tailor consumer pricing. “Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person's location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.” The FTC’s study of the 6(b) documents is still ongoing. The staff perspective is based on an initial analysis of documents provided by Mastercard, Accenture, PROS, Bloomreach, Revionics and McKinsey & Co. Image The FTC’s 6(b) study focuses on intermediary firms, which are the middlemen hired by retailers that can algorithmically tweak and target their prices. Instead of a price or promotion being a static feature of a product, the same product could have a different price or promotion based on a variety of inputs—including consumer-related data and their behaviors and preferences, the location, time, and channels by which a consumer buys the product, according to the perspective. The agency will only release information obtained from a 6(b) study as long as all data has been aggregated or anonymized to protect confidential trade secrets from company respondents, and therefore the staff perspective only includes hypothetical examples of surveillance pricing.  The staff perspective found that some 6(b) respondents can determine individualized and different pricing and discounts based on granular consumer data, like a cosmetics company targeting promotions to specific skin types and skin tones. The perspective also found that the intermediaries the FTC examined can show higher priced products based on consumers’ search and purchase activity. As one hypothetical outlined, a consumer who is profiled as a new parent may intentionally be shown higher priced baby thermometers on the first page of their search results. The FTC staff found that the intermediaries worked with at least 250 clients that sell goods or services ranging from grocery stores to apparel retailers. The FTC found that widespread adoption of this practice may fundamentally upend how consumers buy products and how companies compete. As the FTC continues its work in this area, it is issuing a request for information   today seeking public comment on consumers’ experiences with surveillance pricing. The RFI also asks for comments from businesses about whether surveillance pricing tools can lead to competitors gaining an unfair advantage, and whether gig workers or employees have been impacted by the use of surveillance pricing to determine their compensation. Comments are due by April 17. The Commission voted 3-2 to allow staff to issue the report. Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak issued a dissenting statement related to the release of the initial research summaries. The FTC has additional resources on the interim","id":2044739,"titre":"FTC Surveillance Pricing Study Indicates Wide Range of Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer Prices","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-surveillance-pricing-study-indicates-wide-range-personal-data-used-set-individualized-consumer","pubDate":"Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:51:48 +0200"},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/ftc-chairman-andrew-n-ferguson-appoints-deputy-directors-bureaus-competition-consumer-protection","titre":"FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson Appoints Deputy Directors of the Bureaus of Competition and Consumer Protection","pubDate":"Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:50:56 +0100","description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson today announced he has appointed Taylor C. Hoogendoorn as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition and Katherine White as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection.  Hoogendoorn is a talented litigator with expertise in a wide range of litigation, including antitrust, tort, contractual, energy, and intellectual property matters. Hoogendoorn joins the FTC after spending time in private practice at a law firm in Houston. He clerked for the Hon. Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court of the United States; the Hon. Gregory G. Katsas on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and the Hon. J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Hoogendoorn holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he won the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals and served on the Yale Law Journal, and a B.B.A. with majors in Economics, Finance, Mathematics, and Business Fellows from Baylor University. While at Baylor, he served on the university’s Board of Regents and graduated as the top-ranked student in the Hankamer School of Business. White is an experienced privacy and consumer protection attorney, with a career in both government service and private practice. White has deep experience in all aspects of consumer protection law and has led complex investigations relating to privacy, data security, and credit reporting. Most recently, White was a partner at a law firm. Prior to joining the firm, White spent nearly 15 years at the FTC and served in a variety of roles, including as an Attorney Advisor to former Commissioner Noah Phillips during the first Trump administration, Counsel to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and as a senior attorney in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. In addition, White worked on detail for the Senate Commerce Committee where she provided advice on a range of consumer protection issues. She is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School and the University of","id":2013068,"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués"},{"source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","id":1905770,"description":"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson has appointed Daniel Guarnera as Director of the Bureau of Competition. “I am thrilled Dan is joining the FTC as Director of the Bureau of Competition,” said Chairman Ferguson. “He has tremendous experience litigating antitrust cases in critical markets, including agriculture and Big Tech. Few lawyers in America have as much experience taking on Big Tech as Dan. He also has experience using the antitrust laws to promote competition in labor and healthcare markets—two of my top priorities. Under Dan’s leadership, the Bureau of Competition will do its part to fulfill President Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living for all Americans, to promote innovation, and to protect the interests of American workers.” Guarnera joins the Commission from the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, where he served as chief of the Civil Conduct Task Force. During his tenure, the task force filed monopolization suits against Google and Apple, as well as multiple cases involving agriculture and labor markets. Prior to his role as chief, Guarnera participated in conduct and merger matters in industries such as transportation, healthcare, and technology, including as a trial attorney and counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division during the first Trump Administration. He previously served as special counsel to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley during the confirmation of President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch. He also worked in private practice and clerked for the Honorable Diane S. Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Guarnera earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and French-European studies from American University and earned law and business administration degrees from the University of Virginia. The Commission vote approving Guarnera’s appointment as Director of the Bureau of Competition was","pubDate":"Tue, 11 Feb 2025 09:45:58 +0100","titre":"FTC Chairman Ferguson Appoints Daniel Guarnera as Director of Bureau of Competition","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/02/ftc-chairman-ferguson-appoints-daniel-guarnera-director-bureau-competition"},{"id":1852937,"description":"The Federal Trade Commission today finalized a consent order that resolves antitrust concerns surrounding Exxon Mobil Corporation’s (Exxon) acquisition of oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources. The final consent order settles FTC charges first announced in  May 2024 . Under the final consent order , Exxon is prohibited from nominating, designating, or appointing founder and former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield to the Exxon board or from serving in an advisory capacity in any way to the Exxon board or Exxon’s management. Additionally, the final consent order requires that for a period of five years, Exxon shall not nominate, designate, or appoint any Pioneer employee or director, other than certain named individuals, to the Exxon board. In addition, under the final order, Exxon, for a period of 10 years, will agree to certain Clayton Act Section 8 attestation and reporting obligations. Following a public comment period, the Commission voted 3-2 to approve the final order, with Commissioners Andrew N. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak dissenting. Chair Lina M. Khan issued a statement . Commissioner Holyoak issued a dissenting statement joined by Commissioner","source":"Federal Trade Commission Concurrence communiqués","pubDate":"Sat, 18 Jan 2025 09:55:34 +0100","titre":"FTC Approves Final Order in Exxon-Pioneer Deal","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-approves-final-order-exxon-pioneer-deal"}]