FTC Files Suit Against Acai Marketing Sites Disguised as ‘News’
The FTC recently filed suit against ten operations with websites that market acai berry weight loss products. The FTC alleged that the companies’ websites – which look like news websites – deceived consumers who thought the sites were credible journalistic outlets as opposed to elaborate marketing schemes. According to the FTC, the sites contained titles… Read More
Do Companies Need to Change the Way They Use Online Consumer Data?
The FTC recently entered into an agreement with Internet advertising company Chitika, Inc., settling charges that the company deceptively tracked consumers’ online activities. At issue in the FTC’s complaint was that Chitika’s privacy policy gave consumers the ability to opt out of being tracked by the company’s use of online “cookies,” but that – unbeknownst… Read More
Strike Force Hits Hard at Massive Medicare Fraud
Last month, the Federal Medicare Strike Force charged 111 defendants in nine states for their alleged participation in fraud schemes that reportedly cost Medicare almost a quarter billion dollars. Last month’s sweep resulted from the Justice Department’s and Health and Human Services’ work with the FBI, the HHS inspector general, and various state and local law… Read More
Identity Theft Tops List of FTC Complaints in 2010
This month, the Federal Trade Commission released its list of the top ten consumer complaints received by the agency in 2010. This list represents a good indication of some of the areas toward which the FTC may direct its resources and increase its scrutiny. For the 11th year in a row, identity theft was the… Read More
Ifrah Law’s Blog Wrap-Up, March 9-23
This is the fourth of a regular series of posts that summarize and wrap up our latest thoughts that have appeared recently on Ifrah Law’s blogs. 1. Proposed Gaming Bill Could Make Nevada First to Legalize Online Poker Nevada, long an innovator in the gambling arena, may soon take another major step by becoming the first… Read More
Online Sellers Need to Beware of State Attorneys General
The Pennsylvania Attorney General filed a consumer protection lawsuit last month against Zoommania, LLC, a Philadelphia-based Internet electronics store, for a bait-and-switch scheme the company allegedly employed in online sales and for its creation of new websites to avoid negative customer feedback resulting from the scheme. The complaint, which seeks restitution for consumers, alleges that… Read More
Is FTC Action Needed Against Pricey Apps?
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the apathy of the American parent. If a parent drops off a child at a candy store, handing the child a credit card and saying nothing more than he’ll be back in 15 minutes, should that parent be angry with the candy store owner if the child ends up buying… Read More
Ifrah Quoted in News Outlets Coast to Coast
On March 2, 2011, Jeff Ifrah, founding partner of the Ifrah Law firm in Washington, D.C., provided commentary on two different breaking news items to The Washington Post, the Associated Press, ABC News, the Blog of the Legal Times and several other major news outlets. That day, an article in The Washington Post quoted Ifrah… Read More
FTC Cracks Down on Merchants’ Empty Promises
On March 2, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission announced “Operation Empty Promises,” a multi-agency law enforcement initiative aimed at cracking down on misleading “work from home” and other business opportunity offers. The campaign includes more than 90 actions brought by various state and federal agencies in the past year, including the Department of Justice, the… Read More
Ifrah Law’s Semi-monthly Blog Wrap-up, February 1-18
This is the second of a regular series of posts that summarize and wrap up our latest thoughts that have appeared recently on Ifrah Law’s two blogs. 1. Is D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker? On February 2, we were among the first media outlets to point out that a little-noticed amendment could… Read More
