Investigation / Antitrust / Federal Trade Commission Docket C-4824 The 25-Town Oil-Change Squeeze Valvoline tried to buy out a rival quick-lube chain owned by private equity. The FTC found the deal would have handed one company dominant control of oil…
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…
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…
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…
FTC Enforcement / Consumer Fraud / Tech Deception Your Phone Was Never Listening. They Charged You Anyway. A Wisconsin marketing firm sold small businesses on a surveillance fantasy: AI that could hear potential customers speaking and target them in real…
TL;DR Vanilla Chip LLC, operating as TruHeight, sold dietary supplements priced at $25 to $120 per unit, targeting parents of children and teenagers with claims the pills cause measurable height growth. The FTC found these claims false and unsubstantiated. The…