A Constitutional Challenge to Watch: Axon Sets Its Sight on the Structure of the FTC
On January 3, 2019, Axon Enterprise, Inc., a manufacturer of body-worn cameras for law enforcement, filed a complaint against the Federal Trade Commission seeking a declaratory judgment in the District of Arizona. In the complaint, Axon alleges that the FTC's administrative procedures and structure are unconstitutional, and seeks to enjoin the FTC from pursuing an administrative enforcement action against Axon. Although an antitrust case, the matter provides interesting issues that also involve the FTC's consumer protection mission.
FTC Aims to Shake Up Endorsements, Seeks Public Comment on Its Endorsement Guides
The FTC has issued a Proposed Notice requesting public comment on whether to make changes to its Endorsement Guides as part of the agency's periodic retrospective review. This review will serve as a key opportunity for industry participants to shape what happens next by showing what they are seeing in the marketplace when it comes to endorsements and testimonials, consumers' understanding of them, and the effects of new technology and platforms.
Loan Comparison Lead Gen Site Settles with FTC over Deceptive Pay-to-Play Practices
The FTC entered into a settlement with LendEDU, a lead generation website that compares and ranks student loan and other financial products, and three of its officers. According to the FTC, LendEDU heavily promoted its website to consumers as offering "objective," "accurate," and "unbiased" product information, when, instead, it offered higher rankings and ratings to companies that paid for placement — a practice known as "pay-to-play." The FTC uncovered multiple emails between LendEDU's employees and advertisers demonstrating the advertiser's ranking was clearly based on the amount it paid LendEDU per click.