The FTC has reached a partial settlement with the principal defendants in its case against AMG Services Inc., a payday lending operation. The consent stops AMG from using threats of arrest or lawsuits as a tactic for collecting debts or requiring borrowers to allow electronic withdrawals from their bank accounts. In a significant victory for the agency, the magistrate judge found that these lenders are subject to federal law even if they are affiliated with American Indian tribes. The FTC continues to litigate other charges.

A federal judge agrees with the FTC that an online operation crossed the line when it illegally debited people's bank accounts when they applied for payday loans. The FTC charged Direct Benefits Group, LLC and its affiliated companies and principals with illegally debiting and enrolling consumers in programs they didn’t want. The judge stopped the illegal practices and ordered the defendants to return more than $9.5 million to the affected borrowers.

General Electric has agreed to modifications to complete its purchase of Avio’s aviation business, settling FTC charges that the $4.3 billion acquisition would be anticompetitive. The FTC alleged that GE’s acquisition of Avio would substantially lessen competition for the sale of engines used on the Airbus A320neo, resulting in higher prices, reduced quality, and engine delivery delays. Under the settlement, GE cannot interfere with the design and certification of a key engine component designed by Avio for rival aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.

The FTC is seeking a contempt order in federal court against defendants Bryon Wolf and Roy Eliasson, and their firm Membership Services, LLC, alleging they violated the terms of a court order by engaging in some of the same deceptive tactics that led to the FTC’s prior charges against them. The FTC alleges misuse of a negative option program, where a company takes someone’s failure to cancel the program as permission to debit funds from the person's account. The defendants settled the FTC’s previous charges in 2008, but according to the FTC, they had devised a new scam within months to trick loan applicants.

At the FTC’s request, a U.S. district court has stopped Asset & Capital Management Group and its affiliates, a debt collection operation, from using unlawful tactics to harass debtors. The court order froze their assets and appointed a temporary receiver to take over the business pending resolution of the case. The FTC alleged that the defendants posed as process servers or law office employees and falsely claimed they were delivering papers related to a lawsuit. In some instances, the defendants threatened that people would be arrested if they didn’t respond to the calls.