FTC Updates September 2 – 26, 2025

Due to the government shutdown, the FTC is closed aside from essential services. Therefore, Crowell's FTC updates will resume after the shutdown ends.

The FTC proposed recommendations to rescind and lighten its own regulations. The agency also published its 47th Annual Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Report summarizing merger enforcement actions in 2024. These stories, and more, after the jump.

September 3, 2025

Bureau of Consumer Protection: Privacy and Security; Social Media

• Apitor Technology ("Apitor") has been assessed a $500,000 penalty under a proposed order to settle allegations that Apitor, a China-based company that sells robot toys to children and provides a mobile app that allows users to program and control the toys, used a third-party software development kit called JPush that allowed for the collection of location data to be used for various purposes, including advertising. The complaint alleges that Apitor collected this information in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule ("COPPA Rule"). The COPPA Rule requires websites and apps with content directed towards children under the age of 13 to notify parents about any personal information to be collected and get parental consent before collecting that data. In addition to being assessed a penalty, Apitor must comply with COPPA by 1) notifying parents before Apitor (or any other entity) collects any information; 2) obtain parental consent before Apitor (or any other entity) collects any information; 3) delete personal information of a child at the request of a parent, and; 4) only retain personal information of a child for a set time.

Bureau of Consumer Protection: Consumer Privacy; Data Security

• The FTC and state of Utah acted against Pornhub's operators, Aylo, and its affiliated companies (collectively, "Aylo") after alleging that that Pornhub's operations promoted and distributed child sexual abuse material ("CSAM") and nonconsensual material ("NCM") on its website. The complaint alleges that, despite promises to consumers, Aylo did not review videos flagged by users involving CSAM and NCM, did not ban uploaders of CSAM from using the website, did not prevent the videos from being reuploaded to the site, and did not review all videos before they were posted to ensure there was no CSAM or NCM. The complaint further alleged that Aylo failed to protect consumer's private data, including those in the videos. The proposed order 1) imposes a $15 million penalty (to be suspended after payment of $5 million); 2) requires the creation and implementation of a program that will prevent the upload of CSAM and NCM content, verify that the people appearing in videos are consenting adults, and create stronger privacy and security measures, and; 3) remove CSAM and NCM content that was previously uploaded, and inform users of the complaint and proposed order.

September 4, 2025

Bureau of Consumer Protection: Online Advertising and Marketing; Deceptive/Misleading Conduct

• The FTC issued a proposed order against Alex Morton (IM Mastery executive vice president of sales) and Brandon Boyd (IM Mastery salesman) following a complaint alleging that the two individuals led an IM Mastery Academy scheme that involved false claims of high earning potential to persuade consumers to buy training materials on investing. The proposed order against Morton imposes a $76.2 million judgment to be suspended after payment of $10 million. The court entered an order against Boyd on August 20, 2025, imposing a $6.3 million judgment, to be suspended after payment of $500,00. Under the orders, Boyd and Morton are also indefinitely prohibited from misrepresenting earnings claims or the ability to earn certain profits as part of telemarketing activities.

Bureau of Competition: Noncompete

• The FTC filed a complaint against Gateway Services and its subsidiary Gateway US Holdings, Inc., (collectively "Gateway") alleging that Gateway imposes noncompete agreements on its employees when it disallows employees from working in the pet cremation service industry nationwide for one year after leaving the company. The FTC proposed a consent order requiring Gateway to stop its enforcement of any existing noncompete agreements.

Bureau of Competition: Noncompete

• The FTC launched a public inquiry, with comments to be submitted through November 3, 2025, to understand the impact of employer noncompete agreements with the intention to gather information for enforcement actions.

September 5, 2025

Bureau of Competition; Noncompete

• The Commission voted 3-1 to dismiss the appeal and accede to the vacatur of the Non-Compete Clause Rule in Ryan, LLC v. FTC, No. 24-10951 (5th Cir.), and Properties of the Villages v. FTC, No. 24-13102 (11th Cir.).

September 9, 2025

Bureau of Competition, Competition, FTC Operations

• FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson announced Emma Mittelstaedt Burnham's appointment as Associate Director for Healthcare in the Bureau of Competition. stating, "Emma will be an invaluable champion in the FTC's ongoing fight to protect Americans' access to affordable, high-quality healthcare." Ms. Burnham spent 11 years as a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, most recently serving as the Director of Criminal Enforcement.

September 10, 2025

Bureau of Competition, Competition, Nonmerger, Health Care, Noncompete

• The FTC announced that FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson sent letters to several unidentified "large healthcare employers and staffing firms," urging them to review their employment agreements, "including any noncompetes or other restrictive agreements—to ensure they are appropriately tailored and comply with the law." The press release referenced statements from Chairman Ferguson and Deputy Director Kelse Moen, as well as recent FTC actions on noncompetes, emphasizing that enforcement of noncompete agreements remains a top priority for the FTC.

September 11, 2025

Consumer Protection, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Debt Relief, Education, Imposter deceptive/misleading conduct, Advertising and Marketing, Credit and Finance

• The FTC announced proposed orders permanently banning Eric Caldwell and David Hernandez from the debt relief industry and requiring them to turn over assets to resolve charges against them. In its March 2025 amended complaint, the FTC alleged that Caldwell and Hernandez along with others, operated a deceptive student loan debt-relief scheme that collected illegal advance fees, falsely advertised government affiliation, and failed to provide promised services. The proposed order also bans Caldwell from telemarketing and Hernandez from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and both face a monetary judgment of over $45.9 million. Litigation continues against the other defendants.

September 15, 2025

Bureau of Consumer Protection; Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA)

• Under a Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction, Monetary Judgment, and Other Relief, education technology provider Chegg Inc. will pay $7.5 million to customers and implement a simple cancellation function for its services. In its complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the FTC alleged that the company (1) continued to charge hundreds of thousands of customers monthly/recurring fees even after customers requested to cancel their subscriptions and (2) maintained a cumbersome process to cancel recurring subscriptions on its platform. The FTC alleged that the company's billing and cancellation practices violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA).

September 17, 2025

Federal Trade Commission Regulations

• On Tuesday, September 17, 2025, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson submitted recommendations for deleting and revising certain FTC regulations pursuant to the president's Executive Order on Reducing Anticompetitive Regulatory Barriers. Examples of regulations the Chairman proposes revision or rolling back include preferences for businesses owned by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" in awarding transportation contracts and regulations that allow colleges and universities to include the costs of books in tuition.

Hart-Scott-Rodino Act

• The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice's Antitrust Division released their 47th Annual Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Report on Tuesday, September 17. The report summarizes the agencies' 32 merger enforcement actions across sectors, including healthcare, groceries, technology, labor, and manufacturing. Additionally, the HSR Report contains Premerger Notification Program data for 2024. The Premerger Notification Program alerts the FTC and DOJ to transactions that may substantially lessen competition. The agencies were notified of over 2,000 transactions, a quarter of which were valued at more than $1 billion.

Noncompete; Labor Task Force

• On October 8, 2025, the FTC's Labor Task Force hosted a workshop titled "Moving Forward: Protecting Workers from Anticompetitive Noncompete Agreements" at the FTC's Constitution Center. The workshop is the latest in a series of measures by the FTC discouraging noncompetes, including an enforcement action eliminating the existing noncompete agreements of a pet cremation company, warning letters to healthcare companies to evaluate their noncompete agreements, and an RFI for tips for potential enforcement actions.

September 25, 2025

Bureau of Consumer Protection; Cars; Charity

• The FTC announced that it filed a complaint in collaboration with 19 states in the Central District of California to halt an allegedly fraudulent fundraising operation that falsely claimed to support cancer patients. The complaint alleges that Kars-R-Us.com, Inc. and its operators, Michael Irwin and Lisa Frank, misled donors by promising that their contributions would go to United Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. to "save lives" by providing free and low-cost breast cancer screenings, while most funds were diverted for personal use by the operators. The proposed settlement order seeks to dismantle the operation, recover funds, restrict the operators from fundraising, and prevent future misrepresentations. The states joining the FTC in this case include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and stipulated final orders was 3-0. This development is significant for clients involved in charitable activities or nonprofit organizations, as it underscores the importance of transparency and compliance with fundraising regulations.

September 26, 2025

FTC Operations; Draft Strategic Plan

• The FTC announced that it is seeking public comment on its proposed Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030. Government agencies like the FTC update their strategic plans every four years. The FTC's strategic plan presents its mission, goals, and objectives for the next five years and sets the metrics by which the agency will measure success. This draft of the FTC's strategic plan streamlines the document but keeps the three strategic goal structure from previous plans (protect Americans from unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the marketplace; protect Americans from unfair methods of competition, prevent illegal monopolies, and promote fair competition; and protect Americans and maximize mission outcomes through operational excellence and efficiency). Public comments on the draft plan are being accepted until October 17, 2025.

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