Starting this week, more than 300,000 consumers who were victims of a “scareware” scam will receive refunds resulting from Federal Trade Commission settlements with Innovative Marketing and other parties involved in the scheme. Several defendants agreed to surrender more than $8 million total in ill-gotten gains to settle FTC charges that they used deceptive ads […]
Monthly Archives: December 2011
FTC Puts Conditions on LabCorp’s Acquisition of Rival Orchid Cellmark, Inc.
The Federal Trade Commission will require laboratory testing companies Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) and Orchid Cellmark Inc. (Orchid) to divest a portion of Orchid’s paternity testing business, to resolve the FTC complaint alleging that LabCorp’s $85.4 million acquisition of Orchid would have an anticompetitive impact in the market for paternity testing services used […]
FTC Testifies Before House Judiciary Subcommittee on Agency’s Work to Promote Competition and Benefit Consumers
In testimony today before a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee, the Federal Trade Commission detailed its work to promote competition and benefit consumers, including preventing anticompetitive mergers, restricting “pay-for-delay” pharmaceutical agreements that increase prescription drug costs, stopping anticompetitive hospital mergers, and promoting competition in the high-technology and energy markets. Testifying on behalf of the […]
FTC Concludes North Carolina Dental Board Illegally Stifled Competition by Stopping Non-Dentists From Providing Teeth Whitening Services
The North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners illegally thwarted competition by working to bar non-dentist providers of teeth whitening goods and services from selling their products to consumers, according to a unanimous Opinion and Final Order issued by the Federal Trade Commission. The Commission held that the Dental Board sought to, and did, exclude […]
FTC Sends Refunds to Consumers Lured by Work-At-Home Scam
The Federal Trade Commission is mailing approximately 75,000 refund checks to consumers who were deceived by an online marketing operation that sold work-at-home opportunities. The FTC brought the case as part of its ongoing efforts to protect financially strapped consumers from scams that falsely promise job opportunities. The FTC alleged that Abili-Staff Ltd., Equitron LLC, […]
FTC Action Temporarily Halts Operation that Allegedly Used Fake News Sites to Make Deceptive Claims about Acai Berry Weight-Loss Products
As part of its ongoing crackdown on deceptive health claims, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint jointly with the State of Connecticut, seeking to permanently stop a Connecticut-based operation that allegedly used fake news websites to promote their products, made deceptive weight-loss claims, and told consumers they could receive free trials of acai […]