
The FTC has been active in the weeks leading up to a change in administration. The Commission has ordered that companies and the individuals who run them pay refunds paid to consumers they have allegedly misled, doubled down on enforcement against companies attempting to enforce no-hire agreements, and approved revisions to thresholds under Section 7 and 8 of the Clayton Act. These stories and more, after the jump.
Friday, January 3, 2025
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Advertising and Marketing
- The FTC announced the approval of a final consent order against Sitejabber, a company offering an AI-enabled consumer review platform, for allegedly deceiving consumers by misrepresenting that ratings and reviews it published came from customers who experienced the reviewed product or service, artificially inflating average ratings and review counts. However, according to the complaint, Sitejabber collected ratings and reviews from consumers for its online business clients at the time of purchase, before they received or had the chance to experience the products or services they bought. The final order prohibits Sitejabber from making, or assisting anyone else in making, misrepresentations about any ratings, average ratings, or reviews it collects, moderates, or displays. For more information, see our recently published client alert on the topic.
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Advertising and Marketing
- The FTC announced that it will require accessiBle, a software provider, to pay $1 million to settle allegations that it misrepresented the ability of its AI-powered web accessibility tool to make any website compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for people with disabilities. The company allegedly made the claims on its website, on social media, and in articles on third-party websites. According to the complaint, accessiBle also deceptively formatted those third-party articles and reviews to appear as if they were independent opinions by impartial authors and failed to disclose the company’s material connections to the supposedly objective reviewers. The proposed order prohibits the company from representing that its automated products, can make any website WCAG-compliant or can ensure continued compliance with WCAG over time, unless it has the evidence to support such claims.
Monday, January 6, 2025
Bureau of Competition: No-hire agreements
- On Monday, January 6, 2025, the FTC brought its second recent action against a company enforcing no-hire agreements that allegedly restrict building owners and service contractors’ ability to compete for higher wages and better working conditions. Here, the FTC alleges that Planned Companies (“Planned”) limited the ability of workers to negotiate for higher pay, better benefits, and improved working conditions. The FTC issued a consent order stating that Planned must void its current no-hire agreements and publicize in its workplaces that these agreements have no effect. Further, the company cannot include no-hire agreements for future workers.
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Health Claims
- The FTC announced that it is mailing claim forms to consumers who purchased certain health treatment plans from Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, Inc. According to the FTC, the company falsely advertised and misled consumers into buying its products it claimed were treatments for COVID-19, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. Following its order in June 2021, the FTC is now mailing hundreds of consumers who bought Golden Sunrise products between July 2017 and July 2020. Eligible consumers can file a claim by April 6, 2025.
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
FTC Commission: Open Commission Meeting
- The FTC announced its tentative agenda for its open commission meeting to be held on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Agenda topics include housing 6(b) orders, a policy statement on the Clayton Act’s labor exemption, and the Commission’s 6(b) study on contracting practices of pharmacy benefit managers. A link to the meeting will be available on the FTC’s website on the day of the event.
Bureau of Competition: Oil and Gas Competition
- On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, the FTC announced a record penalty to settle alleged gun jumping. Three oil producers XCL Resources Holdings, LLC (“XCL”), Verdun Oil Company II LLC (“Verdun”), and EP Energy LLC (“EP”) will pay $5.6 million for its alleged pre-merger coordination. The FTC’s complaint alleges that these companies violated the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (“HSR Act”) for 94 days when XCL and Verdun assumed operational and decision-making authority over EP when the FTC’s investigation of the merger was underway. Under the HSR Act, companies cannot act as a merged entity until the FTC has completed its investigation and determined that the merger can proceed. Here, the FTC alleges that these companies engaged in pre-merger coordination, therefore violating the HSR Act. This gun jumping, the complaint alleges, resulted in consumers paying skyrocketing prices for gasoline. The Commission voted 4-0-1, with Commissioner Holyoak recused, to accept settlement and refer the matter to DOJ.
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Deceptive/Misleading Conduct
- The FTC and New York Attorney General filed a complaint against Handy Technologies, also known as Angi Services, for allegedly misleading workers through advertising unrealistic pay and pay “as soon as the job is done.” Handy is an app-based platform that provides gig job opportunities to its workers. According to the complaint, Handy deceived workers by advertising earnings that were unattainable for 90% of workers on its app and often two to three times the amount that workers received. The earnings its workers received were significantly cut down by undisclosed fees and inescapable fines. Further, Handy allegedly promised its workers pay “as soon as the job is done,” but did not disclose that workers typically received pay seven days after they completed a job and to receive same day pay, workers would be required to fulfill other duties, including completing another job and waiting at the site for approximately 30 minutes while paperwork is processed. If Handy accepts the settlement, it would owe $2.95 million to repay workers for its deceptive practices. The FTC would also order that Handy accurately reflect the pay workers can expect to receive, including disclosing any fees and fines, as well as the timing of payment.
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Mortgages
- On Wednesday, January 8, 2025, the FTC announced that it is sending refunds to consumers harmed by HOPE Services, also known as HouseHoldRelief. Originally filed in 2015, the FTC’s complaint alleged that defendants targeted homeowners facing foreclosure and misrepresented themselves as a nonprofit organization that could help modify home mortgages. Instead, defendants stole these consumers’ mortgage payments. Now, the FTC is sending checks to the consumers harmed by defendants’ actions.
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Tax Filing Services
- Following its February 2024 complaint, the FTC announced its finalization of an order against H&R Block, a tax preparation company, including a settlement payment of $7 million. According to its complaint, H&R Block’s customers were forced to contact customer service when they tried to downgrade their H&R Block product, and customer service agents deleted customers’ data. Further, its agents claimed that H&R Block offered “free” tax filing, when the majority of taxpayers do not qualify. The FTC ordered that H&R Block make its process to downgrade products easier prior to the 2025 tax filing deadline. In addition, by the 2026 tax filing season, H&R Block must ensure that a customer’s entered data is saved so that they can return to the same point in their tax filing after upgrading.
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Health Claims
- The FTC and Georgia Attorney General announced court orders resolving the agencies’ 2021 complaint against Stem Cell Institute of America. Defendants used deceptive marketing to induce patients, the majority of whom were elderly and disabled, into using its unproven stem cell treatments. On December 26, 2024, the Northern District of Georgia issued an order for injunctive relief, banning defendants from advertising and selling regenerative medicine treatments, and an order for monetary relief based on state law claims, which requires defendants to pay over $5 million.
Friday, January 10, 2025
Bureau of Competition: Threshold Updates
- On Friday, January 10, 2025, the FTC approved revisions to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR). Mergers and acquisitions that will amount to $126.4 million or greater is the revised size-of-transaction threshold for premerger notification filings, replacing the former $119.5 million threshold for reporting. The increased threshold and a new filing fee schedule will apply to transactions following thirty days from the revisions’ publication in the Federal Register.
- The FTC has also approved revised jurisdictional thresholds for Section 8 of the Clayton Act. Effective upon publication in the Federal Register, the new threshold prohibiting interlocking directorates is $51,380,000 for Section 8(a)(l) and $5,138,000 for Section 8(a)(2)(A).