Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission issued a staff report documenting its review of 70 publicly available income disclosure statements from a wide range of multi-level marketing (MLM) and direct selling companies...more
Yesterday FTC Staff released updated Business Guidance Concerning Multi-Level Marketing that provides a detailed account of their current perspective on applicable standards governing the direct selling and multi-level...more
Federal courts and NAD are coming to different conclusions on whether disclosures on the back of packages can effectively qualify claims that appear on the fronts of the packages. Some courts – such as courts in the Ninth...more
Over the past two years, we have seen FTC staff express its opinions on the state of the law in multiple ways. In December 2022, for example, staff issued its Health Products Compliance Guidance, intended to supersede the...more
Big, BIG win for the direct selling industry, as Judge Barbara Lynn (N.D. Texas) grants judgment for Neora, LLC (formerly Nerium) on all of the FTC’s claims, including that the company was operating an illegal pyramid scheme...more
In May 2022, the FTC proposed changes to its Endorsement Guides. Among other things, those changes created more prescriptive disclosure requirements for endorsements, imposed various requirements for consumer reviews, and...more
The FTC took unprecedented action yesterday when it moved to impose what it describes as a “blanket prohibition” preventing the company from monetizing young people’s data. The FTC contends that this prohibition is warranted...more
The FTC sent out new penalty offense notices to 670 companies today, warning them that failure to substantiate product claims could result in civil penalties of more than $50,000. The companies also received copies of the...more
As we count down the last days of March, we mark the end of Christine Wilson’s tenure at the Federal Trade Commission. Set to resign March 31, Commissioner Wilson will have served four and a half years at the FTC – a little...more
On Friday, the FTC announced what would ordinarily be an unremarkable enforcement action against a company for unsubstantiated earnings claims. The FTC alleges that WealthPress, an investment advice company purporting to...more
Yesterday, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection released its Health Products Compliance Guidance—a sweeping overhaul of the 1998 Guidance, Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry. Unlike the recently...more
In today’s open meeting, the FTC voted unanimously to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) considering expansions to and revisions of the FTC’s existing Business Opportunity Rule (“BOR”). This will be the...more
On Wednesday, we described draft legislation circulating in the Senate Commerce Committee that would have given the Federal Trade Commission almost unfettered authority to enjoin permanently any act, practice or method of...more
The one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC has renewed calls for Congressional action to expand and codify the Federal Trade Commission’s enforcement authority under Section...more
During the Federal Trade Commission’s April 28 open meeting, Commissioners utilized the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC to highlight the implications of the ruling...more
Q: It has been nearly a year since the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC foreclosed the FTC’s ability to pursue monetary remedies under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. How has AMG affected the...more
As we previewed last week here, the FTC released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on earnings claims as it embarked on a mission to adopt a rule that would give the FTC, in its own words, “an important new...more
Last Thursday (February 10), the FTC announced that it “will vote” at its February 17 open meeting to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on “deceptive earnings claims for business ventures, gig or other...more
The ripple effects continue from the Supreme Court’s holding in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, explaining that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not allow (and never did allow) monetary remedies....more
For decades, the FTC has explained that the omission of information can lead to liability. It is also a canon of statutory construction that an amendment helps reveal legislative intent. And of course, your mother put it...more
Last week. FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson delivered a speech with a title that made clear she intended to speak her mind: The Neo-Brandeisian Revolution: Unforced Errors and the Dimunition of the FTC....more
Following House passage of 13(b) legislation this summer, Congressional Democrats seem to have lost some of the urgency with which they were moving to strengthen the FTC’s penalty authorities in the wake of the Supreme...more
The Supreme Court in AMG foreclosed the FTC’s ability to pursue monetary remedies under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. That, however, AMG has not stopped the FTC from pursuing monetary relief directly in court, while...more
In its third recent Penalty Offense Authority notice, the FTC today notified more than 1,100 companies offering “money-making opportunities” that it intends to pursue civil penalties of up to $43,792 per violation for...more
Over the last ten days, 700 companies and 70 for-profit colleges received notice of the FTC’s intent to pursue civil penalties under Section 5(m)(1)(b), if these companies and colleges engage in certain conduct deemed by the...more