FTC

The FTC finalized an order banning anti-virus software provider Avast from selling, disclosing or licensing any web browsing data for advertising purposes to settle charges that the U.K.-based Avast Ltd.’s Czech subsidiary sold consumers’ data after promising that its products would protect consumers from online tracking, it said in a Thursday news release. As part of the settlement, Avast must pay $16.5 million, which is expected to be used to provide redress to consumers. The FTC’s February complaint alleged Avast unfairly collected users’ browsing information, stored it indefinitely and sold it “without adequate notice and without consumer consent." Under the order, Avast and its subsidiaries must delete the web browsing information transferred to Jumpshot and any products or algorithms derived from that data; obtain affirmative express consent from consumers before selling or licensing browsing data from non-Avast products to third parties for advertising purposes; notify consumers whose browsing information was sold to third parties without their consent about the FTC’s actions against the company; and implement a comprehensive privacy program that addresses the misconduct alleged, it said. After receiving two comments, the commission voted 3-0-2 to give final approval to the settlement; commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson didn't participate.

Digital media company Meet Kevin sued CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery for refusing to offer social media companies broadcast licenses for the CNN presidential debate that was set for Thursday between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, said an antitrust complaint Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-05441) in U.S. District Court for Central California.

MGM Resorts International’s complaint against the FTC for pre-enforcement declaratory relief fails “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim for relief,” said the commission’s memorandum Monday (docket 1:24-cv-01066) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in support of its motion to dismiss. The FTC’s April 1 order denying MGM's petition to quash a civil investigative demand (CID) “unlawfully deprives MGM of its rights under the Fifth Amendment,” alleges MGM’s April 15 complaint (see 2404160035).The CID requested information as part of a nonpublic investigation involving MGM's September data breach. The suit also seeks to disqualify FTC Chair Lina Khan's participation in the investigation. But the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over MGM’s claims because Congress set forth in the FTC Act “a comprehensive and exclusive scheme for judicial review of agency actions,” said the commission’s memorandum. Under that scheme, MGM may raise its claims in a court of appeals only following a final commission cease and desist order, or in the commission’s enforcement petition currently before the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, it said. MGM also fails “to invoke a cognizable cause of action or state a plausible claim for relief,” said the memorandum. The Declaratory Judgment Act doesn’t supply an independent cause of action, and the Administrative Procedure Act provides a cause to challenge only final agency actions, it said. “MGM challenges no such actions,” it said. “Nor does the Constitution provide a cause of action here,” it said. “Where Congress has provided adequate statutory means for a person’s claims and remedies concerning agency action, a duplicate constitutional cause of action that evades statutory limits and requirements may not be judicially implied,” it said. MGM’s complaint also fails to allege a plausible claim for relief, said the memorandum. Its claim that the FTC Chair Khan should be disqualified from this matter “ignores applicable legal standards and is grounded in an impermissibly tenuous allegation of potential bias,” it said. Khan happened to stay at an MGM hotel shortly after MGM’s most recent data breach “and needed to provide her credit card information on paper,” it said. But that “threadbare” allegation doesn’t support “a plausible claim for bias that would warrant disqualification,” it said. MGM similarly fails to state a claim with its attacks on the deadline and scope of the CID, said the memorandum. The claim of an unfairly short deadline ignores the CID’s original 30-day return date and the additional 47 days MGM gained while its petition to quash was pending before the commission, it said. It also fails to allege the FTC’s refusal to grant an extension, it said. In fact, when commission staff contacted MGM to discuss compliance issues such as timing, “MGM refused to engage in any such discussions,” it said. Likewise, MGM’s claim that the FTC has grounded the CID in “facially inapplicable” regulations “overlooks settled and binding authorities” holding that the commission “is entitled to investigate whether its regulations apply to particular entities or practices,” it said.

Cloud communications platform company Twilio intercepts consumers’ personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), “and related confidential information” without their consent, alleged a privacy class action Friday (docket 4:24-cv-03741) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.

The FTC referred to the DOJ a complaint vs. TikTok, the successor to Musical.ly, and its parent company ByteDance, it said Tuesday in a statement. The FTC’s investigation of the companies began in connection with its order compliance review of Musical.ly following a 2019 settlement for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), it said. The commission investigated additional potential violations of COPPA and the FTC Act, uncovering “reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest,” it said. TikTok said in a statement Tuesday it’s been working with the FTC for more than a year to “address its concerns” and is “disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution.” TikTok “strongly” disagrees with the allegations, which relate to “past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed,” the company said. The FTC doesn’t typically make public when it refers a complaint but determined that doing so in this case was in the public interest, it said.

Adobe deceived consumers by hiding early termination fees for its Photoshop and Acrobat subscriptions, among others, and by not making it easy for them to cancel, alleged an FTC complaint Monday (docket 5:24-cv-03630) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.

U.S. District Judge John Chun for Western Washington in Seattle ordered that a 10-day bench trial will begin June 9 on the FTC’s allegations that Amazon for years has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service, said a clerk’s minute order Friday (docket 2:23-cv-00932). The FTC alleges that Amazon used manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions. Jan. 10 is the deadline for completing discovery in the case, said the order. The FTC’s original complaint, which the agency amended Sept. 20 to add new defendants and details (see 2309200069), was filed a year ago.

The FTC seeks an order enforcing a Jan. 25 civil investigative demand (CID) issued to MGM Resorts International for documents and information relevant to the commission’s ongoing investigation into MGM’s data security practices, said the agency’s petition Monday (docket 2:24-cv-01112) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas. MGM “has refused to comply” with the CID, said the petition. Judicial enforcement is necessary so that FTC staff “may thoroughly and expeditiously conduct its investigation,” it said. The FTC “has met all of the requirements for judicial enforcement of the CID,” it said. It therefore asks the court to issue an order requiring MGM to appear and show cause why it shouldn’t comply with the CID, it said. The court thereafter should grant the FTC’s petition and enter an order compelling MGM to produce the documents and information specified in the CID, it said. Since 2019, MGM has experienced at least three publicly reported data breaches implicating consumers’ personal information, the most recent in September (see 2404020004), said the petition. After the latest breach, the FTC launched an investigation into MGM’s acts and practices relating to the privacy and data security of its consumers, it said. MGM’s failure to comply with the CID has “materially impeded” the commission’s ongoing investigation, it said.

A telemarketing fraud suit filed May 23, 2023, by 48 states and the District of Columbia against VoIP service provider Avid Telecom for allegedly facilitating illegal robocall traffic on its network (see 2305230065), “does not contain a scintilla of evidence” that Avid ever initiated "even a single illegal robocall,” said the defendant's answer (docket 4:23-cv-00233) to the complaint Friday in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Tucson. Nor does the complaint have evidence that Avid knew “that any of the calls that it received from an originating aggregator or carrier was an illegal robocall," it said.

IRobot’s representations to investors about the probability of regulatory approval of its purchase by Amazon and the “adequacy” of the company’s internal controls “were far from reality,” alleged a Securities Exchange Act class action Saturday (docket 1:24-cv-11498) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston.