The FTC filed a complaint against DIRECTV, a national provider of home satellite television services, for deceptively advertising a discounted 12-month programming package. According to the FTC, ads for the programming package don’t clearly disclose to customers that the package requires a two-year contract. The complaint also alleges DIRECTV does not clearly say that the package’s cost increases up to $45 more per month in the second year of the contract – or that, if you wanted to cancel before the end of the two-year period, you’d pay fees of up to $480 to cancel the package.

As part of a long-term effort to combat illegal robocallers, the FTC announced two new contests. The first contest, Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back, challenges contestants to create a tool that people can use to block or automatically forward unwanted landline or mobile robocalls. These calls go to a honeypot, which is an information system that researchers and investigators can use to analyze robocalls. The second contest, DetectaRobo, challenges contestants to use honeypot data to predict which incoming calls are robocalls. Visit www.ftc.gov/strikeback and www.ftc.gov/detectarobo for more information.

The FTC and 10 state attorneys general took action against Florida-based Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. (CCL) and seven other companies. According to the FTC, the companies violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule by illegally using political survey robocalls to sell cruise vacations. People who answered the calls heard a pre-recorded message asking them to participate in a 30-second research survey. Those who “pressed one” to get a two-day cruise to the Bahamas were connected to a live telemarketer working for CCL, who tried to sell them cruise vacations.

Allstar Marketing Group, LLC, agreed to settle charges from the FTC and the New York Office of the Attorney General that it deceived people with its “buy-one-get-one-free” offers for “as-seen-on-TV” products. According to the charges, the company didn’t disclose the total number of products people were buying, or all the related fees and costs, and billed people without their consent. The FTC says that Allstar offered the products to people who believed they were buying items at the prices and quantities they saw advertised on TV. Instead, people who called to order from Allstar were given a confusing sales pitch that mislead them to buy more than what they wanted, and were charged more fees than they bargained for. Allstar will pay $7.5 million for consumer refunds.

The FTC sent more than $2.4 million in refund checks to people harmed by a Premier Precious Metals investment scam. The Commission alleges that the company took millions of dollars from investors, including many older people, by conning them into buying precious metals on credit without clearly disclosing significant costs and risks. The people affected will recover nearly 70 percent of the amount they lost. If you get a refund check, be sure to cash it within 60 days of the mailing date. And remember, the FTC will never ask you to pay anything or give personal information before you can cash a refund check.

Global pharmaceutical company Novartis AG has agreed to divest assets related to two oncology drugs currently in development to settle FTC charges that its $16 billion acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline’s portfolio of cancer-treatment drugs would likely be anticompetitive. Physicians use BRAF and MEK inhibitors to treat melanoma, and both products are also being developed to treat a variety of other cancers. According to the FTC, if the acquisition went forward as proposed, Novartis would likely have delayed or terminated development of both drugs, raising prices for consumers and depriving them of potentially superior products.

The FTC has two new articles, Online Auctions for Buyers and Online Auctions for Sellers, providing tips for people who want to buy or sell using an online auction. For more free information on a variety of consumer topics, visit consumer.ftc.gov.