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  • FTC obtains injunction and monetary judgment against telemarketing company

    Federal Issues

    On January 31, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois finalized, in actions brought by the FTC, a permanent injunction and monetary judgment against a telemarketing company and certain individuals for violating the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45, and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, specifically the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”). The FTC’s motion for summary judgment was granted by the court, whereby the defendants were ordered to pay a monetary judgment for a civil penalty of $28,681,863.88 in favor of the FTC, and the defendants were permanently banned from participating in telemarketing or assisting and facilitating others engaged in telemarketing to consumers. The court found that the defendants violated the TSR by “initiating or causing the initiation of outbound telephone calls to consumers whose telephone numbers were on the National Do Not Call Registry… and by assisting and facilitating their inbound transfer partners’ violations of the TSR.”  This final action comes after the FTC was granted its initial order for permanent injunction and other relief in November 2023.

    Federal Issues FTC FTC Act Telemarketing TCPA Do Not Call Registry Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act

  • FTC announces settlement of charges against operators of alleged telemarketing training scheme

    Agency Rule-Making & Guidance

    On December 11, the FTC issued a press release announcing proposed orders against the CEO and other related individuals and businesses of an income telemarketing training scheme. In connection with the settlement, the FTC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee alleging violations of the FTC Act and the Telemarking and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act. The FTC alleged that the defendants, a Tennessee-based group of companies, practiced deceptive and unlawful advertising, marketing, promotion, distribution, and selling of money-making and investment opportunities in offering a sales mentor program. The complaint alleges defendants performed these acts through several business entities via a telemarketing sales training and coaching program and through marketing practices on social media platforms. Since 2019, consumers paid more than $29 million to defendants for access to this sales training program.

    The FTC filed two stipulated judgments for “permanent injunction, monetary judgment, and other reliefs.” The orders contain a total monetary judgment of $16.4 million. The stipulated orders also prohibit the defendants from: (i) making misleading earnings claims, so if the defendants make earnings claim in the future, they have to have a reasonable basis for those claims; and (ii) misrepresenting any sales of goods or services, including the description of the good or service, any past performance, any testimonials, any future predictions of profit earnings, among others.  The defendants will also be required to turn over a total of $1 million to be used to refund harmed consumers, with one CEO ordered to pay $600,000 and the other defendants ordered to pay $400,000. All defendants neither admit nor deny any of the allegations in the complaint.

    Agency Rule-Making & Guidance FTC Telemarketing Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act FTC Act Fraud

  • District Court denies majority of MSJ requests in FTC action against online discount club

    Courts

    On March 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied the majority of motions for summary judgment filed by the FTC and defendants in a 2017 action that charged the operators of a group of marketing entities and payment processors (collectively, “defendants”) with numerous violations of law for allegedly debiting more than $40 million from consumers’ bank accounts for membership in online discount clubs without their authorization. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the FTC’s 2017 complaint alleged that the online discount clubs claimed to offer services to consumers in need of payday, cash advance, or installment loans, but instead enrolled consumers in a coupon service that charged an initial application fee as well as automatically recurring monthly fees.

    In reviewing the parties’ respective motions for summary judgment, the court first reviewed the FTC’s claims against the defendants allegedly responsible for launching the discount program (lead generator defendants) “as a way to salvage leads on loan-seeking consumers that the [lead generator defendants] were not able to sell to lenders or others.” The lead generator defendants allegedly used loan-seeking consumers’ banking information to enroll them in discount club memberships with automatically recurring monthly charges debited from the consumers’ bank accounts. While the lead generator defendants contended that the enrollments were authorized by the consumers themselves, the FTC claimed, among other things, that “loan-seeking consumers were redirected to the discount club webpage during the loan application process.” The court determined that because there exists a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the lead generator defendants’ loan application process, discount club webpages, and telemarketing practices were deceptive or if their practices violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the FTC is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law on its claim for injunctive relief or equitable monetary relief.

    The court also concluded that the FTC failed to present evidence showing that another defendant—a now-defunct entity whose assets and business operations were sold to some of the defendants—is violating or is about to violate the law because the FTC’s action was filed more than three years after the defunct entity ceased all operations. As such, the court found that the statute of limitations applies and the defunct entity is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the FTC’s claims. However, the court determined that there is evidence suggesting the possibility that two individual defendants involved in monitoring and advising the defendants in the alleged discount club scheme, may continue the scrutinized conduct.

    With respect to the FTC’s claims against certain other individual defendants allegedly responsible for owning and managing some of the corporate defendants and their wholly-owned subsidiaries, the court considered defendants’ arguments “that they had a general lack of knowledge of (or authority to control) the alleged violative conduct” and “that the FTC does not have the right to seek equitable monetary relief” as a result. In denying the FTC’s motions for summary judgment against these individual defendants, the court found “that there are disputed issues of material fact as to these matters which should be decided by the trier of fact,” and that the FTC’s claim for equitable monetary relief required further analysis following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, which held that the FTC does not have statutory authority to obtain equitable monetary relief under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. (Covered by InfoBytes here.)

    Finally, the court concluded that sufficient evidence showed that another individual (who served as an officer of a defendant identified as being responsible for processing the remotely created checks used to debit consumers’ accounts during the discount club scheme) “knowingly and actively participated in acts that were crucial to the success of the . . . alleged discount scheme.” However, because there exists a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the lead generator and named defendants’ loan application process, discount club webpages, and telemarketing practices were deceptive, the court ruled that the FTC is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law as to its claims against the individual’s estate. The court also found that the individual’s estate is not entitled to summary judgment on either of its arguments related to the FTC’s request for monetary relief.

    Courts FTC Enforcement FTC Act ROSCA Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act UDAP Consumer Finance

  • FTC and student loan debt relief operation agree to permanent injunction

    Federal Issues

    On March 30, the FTC announced a settlement with three student loan debt relief companies and their owner for violating the FTC Act and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act by allegedly engaging in deceptive practices when marketing and selling their debt relief services. The complaint alleges that the defendants, among other things, (i) falsely promised consumers that they could permanently lower or eliminate student loans by enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan for an upfront fee; (ii) offered consumers incentives for positive reviews; (iii) failed to advise consumers to state that they were offered payment for reviews, and failed to disclose that consumers were paid when responding to reviews; and (iv) incorrectly advised consumers on how to report family sizes on applications for student loan debt relief, or falsified consumers’ family size without their knowledge.

    According to the FTC, the defendants agreed to a pending stipulated final order that would, among other things, permanently ban the defendants from providing unsecured debt relief services and from making misrepresentations or unsubstantiated claims related to any products and services. However, the defendants will be allowed to continue to assist existing consumers prepare and submit applications to the Department of Education as part of the yearly recertification process, provided the consumers have provided an opt-in confirmation. The stipulated order also requires the defendants to pay $350,000, with the total judgment of approximately $23.9 million suspended due to inability to pay.

    Federal Issues FTC FTC Act Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act Student Lending Debt Relief Enforcement

  • FTC settles with credit repair companies

    Federal Issues

    On January 17, the FTC announced it had reached settlements with a number of defendants alleged to have operated “an unlawful credit repair scam that has deceived consumers across the country.” According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants purportedly made false representations to consumers regarding their abilities to improve credit scores, falsely promised to remove any negative entries on the consumers’ credit reports, illegally collected upfront fees from consumers before the services were fully performed, and used threats and coercion to intimidate consumers from disputing charges. The FTC alleged these misleading statements and illegal actions violated TILA, the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Act, and the Credit Repair Organizations Act, among other things. Additionally, the FTC claimed that the defendants “routinely engage in electronic fund transfers from consumers’ bank accounts without obtaining proper authorization, and use remotely created checks to pay for credit repair services they have offered through a telemarketing campaign, in violation of the TSR.” The defendants, without admitting or denying the allegations, agreed to settlements that ban the defendants from offering credit repair services through “advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, or selling,” impose a total monetary penalty of nearly $14 million, and require several defendants to turn over the contents of bank and merchant accounts as well as investment and cryptocurrency accounts. See the settlements here, here, and here.

    Federal Issues Agency Rule-Making & Guidance Settlement Enforcement FTC FTC Act TILA TSR CROA Telemarketing Sales Rule Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act Credit Repair

  • FTC obtains $2.7 million judgment against “free samples” operation; settles deceptive marketing matter

    Federal Issues

    On April 11, the FTC announced that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered a New York-based office supply operation to pay $2.7 million to resolve allegations that the defendants targeted consumers, such as small businesses, hotels, municipalities, and charitable organizations, by deceptively misrepresenting the terms of their “free samples.” Specifically, the FTC alleged in 2017 that the defendants violated the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (Telemarketing Act) and the Unordered Merchandise Statute by calling consumers with offers of free product and then billing the consumers after shipping the samples. In some instances, the FTC stated, consumers refused the offer of the free product, but the defendants sent it anyway. Once the samples were shipped, the FTC claimed the defendants sent follow-up invoices demanding payment for the product, and would then send dunning notices and place collection calls. Under the terms of the order, the defendants are permanently banned from advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, or selling any type of unordered merchandise, or from misrepresenting material facts, and are required to pay $2.7 million to be refunded to affected consumers.

    Separately, on April 10, the FTC announced proposed settlements (see here and here) issued against twelve corporate and four individual defendants for allegedly claiming their “cognitive improvement” supplements increase brain power and performance. According to the complaint, the defendants’ deceptive acts and practices included using “sham news” websites to market false and misleading efficacy claims, such as fraudulent celebrity endorsements and fictitious clinical studies. Furthermore, the FTC alleged that, while the defendants claimed to offer a “100% Money Back Guarantee” on their supplements, consumers found it difficult or nearly impossible to get a refund, and that some consumers were allegedly charged for supplements they ordered but never received. The proposed settlements, among other things, prohibits the specified behavior and impose monetary judgments of $14,564,891 and $11,587,117, both of which will be partially suspended due to the defendants’ inability to pay.

    Federal Issues FTC Consumer Protection Deceptive Fraud Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act

  • FTC files complaint against two operations allegedly responsible for making billions of illegal robocalls

    Privacy, Cyber Risk & Data Security

    On June 5, the FTC announced charges filed against two individuals and their related operations (defendants) for allegedly facilitating billions of robocalls to consumers across the country through a telephone dialing platform in violation of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the alleged misconduct—dating back to 2001—centered around the principal and owner of a group of companies that operated and developed a computer-based telephone dialing platform, and a second individual defendant and his group of call center businesses that paid for the development and use of software designed to make autodial telephone calls and deliver prerecorded messages. The FTC alleged that for many years the two individual defendants jointly owned and operated businesses that resold access to a “bundle of services”—referred to as a “one-stop-shop for illegal telemarketers”—that provided, among other things, (i) servers to host the autodialing software, as well as the physical space housing the servers; and (ii) the ability to make calls using “spoofed” caller ID numbers, which made it look as if the calls came from a consumer’s local area code. According to the FTC, this “bundle of services” became so widely used within the industry that it has been named in at least eight other FTC lawsuits centered on the facilitation of unlawful calls. Among other things, the charges against the defendants include assisting with illegal robocalls, calling with prerecorded messages, calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, calling with spoofed caller IDs, and abandoning calls. The FTC seeks civil monetary penalties, a permanent injunction against the defendants to prevent future violations, and reimbursement of costs for bringing the action.

    Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security FTC Robocalls FTC Act Telemarketing Sales Rule Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act

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