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Not every building project starts with an ax-wielding guy in a flannel shirt yelling “tim-berrrr!” Consumers have another choice these days: plastic lumber, which is often used in decking, fences, outdoor furniture, etc. Wisconsin-based N.E.W. Plastics Corporation (you may know them as Renew Plastics) manufactures two lines of plastic lumber – Evolve and Trimax – and touts their environmental benefits. But according to a settlement announced by...

When did a light bulb become the symbol of a good idea? We don’t know, but a ruling in the FTC’s lawsuit against Lights of America – including a $21 million order mandating refunds for consumers and some bookmark-worthy notable quotes from the Court – should serve as a light bulb moment for marketers. The FTC charged California-based Lights of America and its two owners with overstating the light output and life expectancy of their LED bulbs and...

When an ad purports to show a “right before your eyes” demonstration of a product in action, the visual must be a truthful representation of what it can do. If that’s not the case, both the advertiser and the ad agency can find themselves in law enforcement quicksand. That may have been news to Don Draper and his colleagues at Sterling Cooper in the early 60s, but it’s been a well-established legal tenet since then. The FTC’s complaint against...

What do dirty diapers and deceptive ads have in common? (We’ll pause a moment so you can add your own punch line.) Now that’s out of the way, the action against Portland-based Down to Earth Designs – consumers know them as gDiapers – is the FTC's latest effort to ensure the accuracy of environmental marketing claims. But even if green isn't your game, the case also offers insights into what the FTC calls "unqualified claims." gDiapers is a diaper...

Whooping it up can be fun, but hooping it up – requiring consumers to jump through hoops to exercise their rights under the Fair Credit Report Act – is illegal. That’s one message businesses can take from the FTC’s $3.5 million settlement with TeleCheck. Houston-based TeleCheck Services offers retailers an on-the-spot recommendation about whether to accept a shopper’s check. Its affiliate, TRS Recovery Services – also named in the FTC’s lawsuit –...

Update (3/27/14): Apple will notify people about how to get refunds by April 15. The settlement requires Apple to provide full refunds for in-app charges made by kids without parental permission. It’s a simple concept really: Companies shouldn’t charge people for stuff without their express consent. That’s the law – and it’s always been the law. So when a company chooses to implement a billing process that, in effect, opens a tab for kids and...

If you regularly use FTC.gov to find cases, speeches, reports or such, then you’ve probably noticed a few changes. We know -- change is hard. But with added features like drop-down menus and filters, finding what you need on the new FTC.gov should be easier than ever. The new website uses a content management system that allows documents and webpages to be grouped together by the use of “tags” or keywords. Most content on FTC.gov has been tagged...

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Glitch Happens. In the case of Accretive Health, Inc., it was a laptop taken from the passenger compartment of an employee’s car. What transformed this oops into a full-fledged uh-oh was that the laptop contained files with 20 million pieces of data about 23,000 patients, including sensitive health information. And according to the FTC’s lawsuit, the employee in question didn’t need all that to do his...

No one is sliding across the living room floor in shades lip synching to Bob Seger, but violating the FTC’s Risk-Based Pricing Rule is risky business nonetheless. That’s the message of the FTC’s $1.9 million settlement with telecom company Time Warner Cable, Inc., the first case brought under the Risk-Based Pricing Rule. Part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Risk-Based Pricing Rule has been in place for almost three years. If a company...