Category: Blog Post

The federal government and each state has a consumer protection law. We normally call these UDAP statutes (i.e. Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices) The laws are quite similar and their aim is to protect consumers from deceptive acts of businesses. However, there are some distinct differences state to state. I work...

Why so much interest in Wyoming LLCs? When I ran the Attorney General's consumer protection unit in Wyoming, I was involved in many, many investigations and enforcement actions against Wyoming limited liability companies (LLCs) under the Consumer Protection Act. I would estimate that 99% of the Wyoming LLCs...

Is your website or mobile app compliant with COPPA? The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted in 1998. The Federal Trade Commission enforces COPPA.  COPPA aims to give parents control over the information that is collected online from young children. It requires that certain website and...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently entered a stipulated order against several defendants in the "IWorks" case that the FTC brought in 2010. The FTC alleged that the defendants "took more than $280 million from consumers via deceptive “trial” memberships for bogus government-grant and money-making products." The...

What happens when a consumer files a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission? One of the options that consumers think of when they have a consumer complaint against a company is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is...

As noted earlier, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and the corresponding Regulation E apply to subscriptions and recurring charges. But those are not the only federal laws that regulate recurring charges. The Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act also applies to situations where consumers purchase products or services online that...

Subscriptions and Recurring Charges Subscriptions and recurring charges are used by some businesses engaged in e-commerce. This typically occurs where the business is offering a product or service on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Newspapers and magazines are a common product offered through a subscription. Other products...

Question: If it says "all natural" or "100% natural" on the ingredient label, can the product have any synthetic ingredients? Answer: According to the FTC, absolutely not! The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently approved settlements in several cases where companies advertised that their products were "all natural"...

The most common question regarding attorney general investigations is whether it is necessary to retain an attorney for the interview. The answer is yes! During the course of an investigation the attorney general's office will usually subpoena one or more witnesses for interviews. The interviews are usually made under...

I have mentioned before that there are serious consequences to not responding to a subpoena issued by the Attorney General. If you or your company have been served with a subpoena, your first step should be to contact Harmony Law immediately. Timing is very important in responding...