The Federal Trade Commission took action under the FTC Act, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act against bill payment company Doxo and its co-founders for allegedly using deceptive tactics to trick consumers into using the company's service, tacking millions in junk fees onto consumers' bills, and unknowingly signing consumers up for its recurring subscription program.
According to the FTC's complaint, the company uses dark patterns to deceptively disguise itself as billers' official payment channels. Doxo allegedly purchases search engine ads to intercept consumers attempting to reach their billers directly, then styles its landing pages to reinforce the misimpression that consumers have reached their biller's official payment site—by, for example, featuring the biller's name, contact information and/or logo. Despite this, the FTC alleges that less than two percent of the companies in Doxo's "network" have actually authorized Doxo to accept payments on their behalf.
At the very end of the payment process, once consumers have provided their billing details, Doxo allegedly adds junk fees — "in greyed-out fine print" — to consumers' bills, which generally would have been avoided had the consumers paid their billers directly.
Additionally, the complaint outlines Doxo's deceptive process to sign consumers up for its recurring subscription program, explaining that, until it learned of the FTC's proposed complaint, the company would automatically check a box to sign consumers up when they had simply clicked a "User Terms of Service" hyperlink. Even now, the FTC says that Doxo fails to disclose material terms of its subscription program to consumers.
In addition to the millions of dollars Doxo collects in hidden fees, the FTC alleges that, as a result of its actions—namely, immediately charging a consumer for payment, but often printing and mailing a paper check to the biller that arrives days or even weeks after the customer believes their bill is paid—many consumers have suffered harm in the form of utilities being shut off, insurance lapsing, and unwarranted late fees and fines.
According to the complaint, Doxo has persisted in the above conduct "even after tens of thousands of consumers have complained to Doxo that they were misled, after hundreds of billers have warned their customers about Doxo's deceptive conduct, and after Defendants Steven Shivers and Roger Parks, two of Doxo's co-founders, have been repeatedly alerted by multiple sources that the company is deceiving consumers."
"Doxo intercepted consumers trying to reach their billers and tricked them into paying millions of dollars in junk fees," said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "The FTC will continue to take action when companies use deceptive design tricks to harm consumers."
A spokesperson for Doxo responded in a statement that the FTC's allegations are "misguided" and "indicate[] a fundamental misunderstanding of the existing bill-pay market."
"Doxo intercepted consumers trying to reach their billers and tricked them into paying millions of dollars in junk fees. The FTC will continue to take action when companies use deceptive design tricks to harm consumers" -- Samuel Levine, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
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