AUGUST 2018
Following a U.S. District Court ruling granting the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction against Wilhelmsen Maritime Services’ proposed $400 million acquisition of Drew Marine Group, Wilhelmsen announced that it will abandon the transaction. According to a statement by FTC Bureau of Competition Acting Deputy Director Haidee L. Schwartz, the acquisition would have led to higher prices and diminished service in the supply of marine water treatment chemicals to global fleets.
A Texas company that provides therapist staffing services to home health agencies, its owner, and the former owner of a competing staffing company agreed to settle FTC charges that they agreed to reduce pay rates for home-care therapists in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and invited other competitors to collude on the rates. The proposed consent order prohibits the parties from colluding with competitors on compensation paid to their employees or independent contractors. Commissioner Rohit Chopra issued a statement inviting public comment on aspects of the resolution of this matter, which is available here.
Spain-based global healthcare company Grifols
S.A. agreed to divest three
blood plasma collection centers, among other conditions, as part of a
settlement resolving charges that Grifols’ acquisition of Florida-based
Biotest US Corporation would harm competition in the markets for collection of
human blood plasma in three U.S cities.
The FTC Bureau of Competition announced a new model timing
agreement that provides a framework for the timing of certain steps in a merger
investigation. Timing agreements allow
for more efficient substantive engagement between FTC staff and the parties,
and ensure that staff has notice of parties' plans to consummate the
transaction. Click the headline above
for a blogpost with more on the new timing agreement.
The FTC and the State of Minnesota have charged a Minnesota-based company,
Sellers Playbook, with running a large business opportunity scheme that
promised purchasers they were likely to earn thousands of dollars per month
selling products on Amazon. Most
consumers lost money but the defendants, who have no affiliation with
Amazon.com, took in more than $15 million from consumers. The FTC also charged defendants with violating
the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) through contracts that improperly
sought to restrict consumers’ right to review the products and services they
purchased. This is the FTC’s first
action under the CRFA, which went into effect in December 2017.
The FTC, along with state and
local law enforcement officials and charity regulators, announced more than 100
actions and a consumer education initiative in “Operation Donate with Honor,” a
crackdown on fraudulent charities that con consumers by falsely promising their
donations will help veterans and armed services members. The initiative includes an education
campaign, in English and Spanish, to help consumers recognize charitable
solicitation fraud and identify legitimate charities.
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 Search Cross-Border
Complaint Trends in Your Country
Did you know, certified econsumer.gov members
can view cross-border complaint trends specific to their country? Search complaints by consumer or business
location, and find out the top complaint categories, top businesses complained
about, and more. You can search as often
as you wish or make it a monthly habit. Interested enforcement agencies can contact
Hui Ling Goh, hgoh@ftc.gov,
for more information on how to participate in econsumer.gov.
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The FTC, working with State partners, conducted the first compliance
sweep of car dealerships since the amended Used Car Rule took effect earlier
this year. Under the amended Rule,
dealers must display a revised window sticker called a “Buyers Guide,” which
contains warranty and other important information for consumers, on each used
car they offer for sale. Agencies
conducted the compliance sweep in 20 cities nationwide. The inspectors found Buyers Guides on 70
percent of the more than 2,300 vehicles inspected, with almost half displaying
the revised Buyers Guide.
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In testimony before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, the FTC described its work to protect
consumers and promote competition, and stressed its commitment to anticipating
and responding to changes in the marketplace. The Commissioners also testified about the
FTC’s work with international partners on a wide range of consumer protection,
privacy, and competition enforcement and policy matters, and noted the agency’s
commitment to leveraging its resources through cooperation with law enforcement
partners to maximize effects. The five
Commissioners also testified that during FY 2017, the Commission returned over
$543 million in redress to consumers and deposited $94 million into the U.S.
Treasury. In addition, in FY 2017, FTC
orders in the Volkswagen,
Amazon,
and Net Spend
matters required defendants to self-administer consumer refund programs worth
more than $11.5 billion.
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The FTC testified before Congress about its enforcement program to fight
consumer fraud, and the Commission’s actions against payment processors that
facilitate fraud. The FTC has brought 25
enforcement actions against unscrupulous payment processors that helped
fraudsters violate the FTC Act by actively helping merchants hide their fraudulent
conduct from acquiring banks and payment networks or by turning a blind eye to
the merchants’ fraud.
The FTC testified before Congress
about its enforcement of the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s privacy protections. Identifying FCRA enforcement as a “top
priority,” the FTC pointed to the more than 30 actions to enforce the FCRA
against consumer reporting agencies, users of consumer reports, and furnishers
of information to consumer reporting agencies.
The FCRA requires consumer reporting agencies to follow reasonable
procedures to ensure that they provide consumer report information only to
those with a “permissible purpose” for receiving it, to maintain reasonable
procedures to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of the information, and to
allow consumers to dispute and correct information in their consumer reports.
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The FTC responded to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
request for comment to its publication, Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Costs.
The publication seeks to “increase competition and end the gaming of regulatory
processes that may keep drug prices artificially inflated or hinder generic,
branded, or biosimilar competition.” The FTC comment focuses on two
topics in the Blueprint
that affect a significant portion of U.S. health care expenditures: misuse of
Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) programs and biologic competition.
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