Tag Archives: FTC

There has been plenty of discussion around the ethics of loot boxes over the last couple of years, to the point where governments around the world have been launching their own investigations and some politicians have been calling for outright bans. In an effort to keep the games industry self-regulated, …

Apple and Qualcomm just recently settled their lawsuits against each other and forged a new licensing deal for the years ahead. However, the US FTC’s case against Qualcomm is still on-going and this week, a US Judge ruled that Qualcomm’s licensing terms are indeed anti-competitive. Qualcomm has been fined for …

Amazon has been combatting fake reviews for quite some time, even going as far as taking legal action against the sellers purchasing them. Merchants still don’t seem to take the hint, as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has concluded its first successful case against fraudulent, paid Amazon reviews, fining …

Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into loot boxes, attempting to gain an understanding of the practice to further protect children. While the results of this enquiry have yet to be made public, the regulator has announced that it will be holding a public forum …

While the UK Gambling Commission is still deliberating the effects of loot boxes in video games, it looks like the US Federal Trade Commission will be pushing forward with its own investigation. Chairman Joseph Simmons revealed the new development to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee, promising to protect children and ensure …

As tech enthusiasts, we’ve all come across ‘warranty void if removed’ stickers. They are very common on lots of electronic devices, ranging from games consoles, to PC parts and mobile devices. Last month, the FTC called out six companies over illegal warranty voiding practices. Most notably, the three major console …

As tech enthusiasts, we’ve all come across ‘warranty void if removed’ stickers. They are very common on lots of electronic devices, ranging from games consoles, to PC parts and other products, like TVs or mobile devices. Last month, the FTC called out six companies over warranty voiding practices, stating that …

Update (02/05/18): Late last month, the FTC began cracking down on companies using ‘warranty void if removed’ stickers, amongst other tactics that are apparently illegal. This came as a surprise, because warranty void stickers are common practise across the tech world. At the time, the FTC had issued warnings to …

It seems that the conversation surrounding loot boxes and their relation to gambling has died down in recent months, but that hasn’t stopped authorities from keeping an eye on the developers that use the practice. The latest incident sees publishers Nexon, NextFloor and Netmarble being pulled up by South Korea’s …

It’s fair to say that the reveal of Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook data harvesting in the past couple of weeks has kicked off a worldwide concern over how data is handled online, placing many websites and platforms under the microscope. YouTube is the latest to be scrutinised, with 23 groups across …

Following its week of scandals, Facebook has come under fire from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has now launched an investigation into the platforms privacy practices. This will particularly concern whether the company has caused “substantial injury” to its 50 million affected users. Acting director of the FTC’s …

Back in 2015, Lenovo caught a lot of flack for shipping laptops with ‘Superfish’ installed on them. This bloatware installer resulted in adware and spyware being installed on store-bought systems and as you would expect, customers weren’t happy. Following this, the US Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation and now, …

The Apple VS Qualcomm lawsuit has taken another turn. This time around though, its Apple firing the shots, with the company accusing Qualcomm of infringing on its patents. This latest development turns the tables somewhat, as the patents in question relate to the Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 800 processors, which …

Qualcomm has been fighting various antitrust charges over the last couple of years. At first, the company was fined $975 million in China, then in 2016 regulators in South Korea fined the company over $850 million. The European Union has ruled against Qualcomm in an antitrust case and now, the …

The FTC settles for a slap on the wrist and calls for more disclosure.

VPNs are widely used these days, not just to get around geographical content blocks but also for general privacy on the web. Hotspot Shield is perhaps one of the biggest VPN providers to also offer a free user tier but according to a privacy advocacy group, the company may not …

Earlier this year, the US Federal Trade Commission and Apple both filed lawsuits against Qualcomm, citing anti-competitive business practises. Now, it seems that Samsung and Intel are also piling on, backing the FTC’s suit against the company, claiming that they too have been harmed by Qualcomm’s business practises. It might …

Recently, Qualcomm has been finding itself in quite a bit of trouble with regulators in various countries. The chip maker was recently fined a huge sum of money over anti-competitive practices in South Korea and now, the FTC is also on the case in the US, with Apple being one …

It looks like the Federal Trade Commission has set its sights on Qualcomm this week, as a new lawsuit filed claims that the chip maker has been engaging in anti-competitive behaviour and monopolised a ‘key semiconductor device’ used by Apple for the iPhone and iPad. The FTC’s complaint claims that …

It looks like D-Link has found itself in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week as the US regulator has filed charges against D-Link for putting consumers’ privacy and security at risk with its products. As part of the FTCs current initiative to ensure companies are taking …

Back in 2014, during the build up to Shadow of Mordor’s launch, Warner Bros own marketing campaign almost completely backfired when it was discovered that prominent YouTubers were being paid large sums of money for positive coverage surrounding the game. While paying YouTubers for sponsored content isn’t uncommon, the rules …

The FCC and the FTC in the US have launched investigations in to how companies release their mobile security patches. The investigation is said to centre around how some companies review their security updates and then release them via OTA, while also looking in to the lack of consistency amongst …

We have all heard horror stories of children being left with smartphones or tablets and running up insane charges on in-app purchases. This issue has been brought to the attention of the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon plenty of times in the past and it took a while for …

Google is going to be fighting anti-trust legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic, as the FTC and US Justice Department have launched an official investigation in to Google’s business practises with Android, similar to the one European Commission conducted over the last year. US regulators have apparently decided …

YouTube network, Machinima and the Federal Trade Commission have reached a settlement, following a string of ‘misleading’ videos from partnered channels taking part in an Xbox advertising campaign. The campaign started off with several prominent YouTubers being given an Xbox One and a few games in return for a video …

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has gone ahead and served US mobile carrier, AT&T with a $100 million fine for misleading its customers with unlimited data plans. It turns out that the company was heavily throttling user speeds on the unlimited data service without informing any of them. AT&T was …

While crowd funding has done a fair amount of good for projects looking to get off the ground in recent years, we have also seen backers burned on several occasions by trusting scammers. In the past, we’ve seen several Kickstarter creators go back on promises and rip backers off all …

Sony Computer Entertainment America has managed to come to a settlement with the FTC following allegations of false advertisement during the Playstation Vita’s launch campaign. As part of the agreement, Sony is set to offer partial refunds of up to $50 to customers who purchased a Vita handheld before the …

Google is set to pay out at least $19 million to refund parents who were billed for in-app purchases made by children that weren’t authorized to do so. The case has been going on for some time now but it looks to be coming to a close as Google considers …

Samsung has been fined $340,000 after being caught paying for negative comments about competitor products and paying for praise of its own. To a company like Samsung, $340,000 is nothing at all but this could damage its reputation. Samsung was first accused of this back in April, shortly after, the …