LabMD litigation against FTC lingers
Although the Federal Trade Commission won its effort to quash a lawsuit over its probe of LabMD, the now-defunct medical laboratory is still trying to sue three agency employees.
The pushback on convenience, resort and junk fees
Unexpected, surreptitious fees in retail transactions — additions like “convenience fees” and “resort fees” — have proliferated wildly over the past 30 years. When they aren’t clearly disclosed at the start of a transaction, their omission can deceive consumers and distort the purchase decision....
Current Issue: 838
Despite partisanship, patent troll bill moving ahead
Could it be that in a time of intense partisanship on Capitol Hill, when moving any legislation seems close to impossible, that a bill to rein in litigation brought by so-called patent trolls may...
Important health-care merger trial being tried behind closed doors
A trial is underway in Boise, Idaho that could determine the future configuration of the health-care industry in the United States and mark the beginning of the end of the iconic American role of...
New bill would provide more protections for children online
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who co-chairs the Congressional Bi-partisan Privacy Caucus, responded to a new survey that found a big jump in mobile device use by...
Both sides rest in Bazaarvoice trial
One of the last oral arguments that Judge William H. Orrick III heard before retiring to his chambers to weigh the voluminous evidence in the hard-fought trial in the Justice Department’s challenge...
Republican lawmakers press Chairwoman Ramirez to set guidelines for Section 5
A half-dozen Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are calling for the FTC to provide...
FTC targets firms’ false environmental labels
After the FTC issued revised “Green Guides” a year ago to make it clear that marketers’ claims about their products’ environmental attributes must be truthful, it seemed a good bet that the agency...