TL;DR Oak Street Bootmakers, a Chicago-based footwear brand, charged customers premium prices for shoes it marketed as “Made in USA” and “More than Made in USA” while secretly manufacturing uppers in the Dominican Republic and sourcing outsoles from Brazil, starting…
EvilCorporations.com / Investigation Federal regulators say two companies charged struggling student-loan borrowers hundreds to over a thousand dollars each for loan forgiveness that the government provides directly, for free. A federal court has now frozen the operation. TL;DR The FTC…
FTC v. Rollins, Inc. // Section 5, FTC Act The Federal Trade Commission charged Rollins, Inc. with running a blanket non-compete regime across its 700-plus U.S. locations. The FTC’s own complaint documents how it worked: every new hire signed, nobody…
EvilCorporations.com / Investigation TL;DR The Federal Trade Commission and eight states sued the three biggest US ad-buying companies, Dentsu, WPP Media (GroupM), and Publicis, accusing them of secretly agreeing to stop competing over which news sites their clients’ ads could…
EvilCorporations.com / Antitrust Files The company that already runs most of America’s workplace mini-marts tried to buy its only real competitor. The Federal Trade Commission stepped in. Here is who the deal was built to squeeze, in the government’s own…
Investigation · Consumer Deception They Sold China As America A flagpole company stamped “100% Made in USA” on products built entirely from Chinese parts, kept selling them after a federal warning, then settled for a fraction of the harm and…
Shutterstock Hid The Fees Until It Had Your Card TL;DR Shutterstock agreed to pay $35,000,000 to settle FTC claims that it trapped customers in auto-renewing subscriptions and “one-time” packs that secretly recharged their cards. The FTC says that since at…
The Passive-Income Dream Had a Price Tag: The FTC Case Against Publishing.com FTC Matter No. 242-3055. Respondents: Publishing.com, LLC (f/k/a PublishingLife.com, LLC) of Austin, Texas; Christian Mikkelsen, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer; Rasmus Mikkelsen, co-founder and Chief Product Officer. Consent…
TL;DR The Federal Trade Commission sued MLM recruiter Stormy Wellington on April 13, 2026 for making deceptive income claims while recruiting for two multi-level marketing companies: Total Life Changes (TLC) and Farmasi. 76.8% of TLC participants earned zero compensation in…
TL;DR The Federal Trade Commission sued Innovative Partners, LP and a web of related companies run by siblings Ahmed and Amani Ibrahim Shokry, alleging a nationwide telemarketing scheme that sold fake “health insurance” to people who needed real coverage. Since…