Balough
December 7, 2019
(December 7, 2019) The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is exploring whether there is sufficient legal basis and economic support to restrict the use of non-compete clauses in employer-employee contracts. The FTC has scheduled a workshop for January 9, 2020 and will accept public comments until February 10, 2020. The FTC’s interest in banning non-compete clauses […]
Balough
October 28, 2019
(October 28, 2019) Make sure the tactics used by your social media influencers and product reviewers are not deceptive and the posts are accurate, or the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may come knocking. Two recent cases by the FTC emphasize this point. In the first, the FTC found Devumi, LLC and its owner engaged in […]
Balough
April 8, 2019
(April 8, 2019) If you want to expand your business by giving away product and asking customers to post favorable reviews, don’t follow the UrthBox, Inc. marketing plan, or you will pay a hefty fine to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). UrthBox sells snack products via the web. Starting in 2016, the company offered a […]
Balough
December 26, 2017
(December 26, 2017) A hotel reseller booking site has agreed to stop practices that led customers to believe they were booking rooms on the actual hotel site when in fact the customers were not. When booking with the reseller, customers had their credit cards charged in advance, could not avail themselves of the hotel’s cancellation […]
Balough
December 14, 2016
(December 15, 2016) The website designed to help adults have discrete affairs agreed to settle charges concerning its lack of adequate data security that exposed 36 million of its accounts to hackers in 2015. AshleyMadison.com and its operating companies settled charges that they deceived consumers by claiming their data was secure and, that if they […]
Balough
October 12, 2016
(October 12, 2016) A multi-national tech support group of companies, which used deceptive pop-up ads to scare consumers into believing their computers were infected, has been temporarily shut down by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The companies, which generally operate under the name Global Access Technical Support, use pop-up ads sometimes with a loud alarm […]
Balough
May 10, 2016
(May 10, 2016) Smart device manufactures must explain to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) how they decide when to make security updates to address vulnerabilities in their devices. The FTC wants to more fully understand the policies, procedures, and practices for providing security updates for consumers for their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. The […]
Balough
March 19, 2016
(March 19, 2016) Some developers have included in their mobile apps the ability to turn on a phone’s microphone to listen for codes from television programs and advertisements to generate logs of the user’s viewing habits, all without the knowledge of the phone’s user. While the developer of the “Silverpush” technology stated that the app […]
Balough
February 23, 2016
(February 23, 2016) The maker of ASUS home routers deceived customers when it claimed the devices could protect consumers’ local networks from attack. Instead, the company failed to employ reasonable security practices causing “substantial injury” to consumers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found. ASUSTeK Computer, Inc., has agreed to an FTC consent order that requires […]
Balough
February 5, 2016
(February 5, 2016) Users who downloaded a browser extension game were the ones who got played, according to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) action. General Workings, Inc., d/b/a Vulcun purchased the Running Fred online extension game from its founders and replaced the game with its own extension, called Weekly Android Apps. An extension is a […]
