Washington, DC - The FTC focuses most of its time and attention on protecting consumers and promoting competition. Every so often, we stop and take stock. For example, check out our just-released Annual Highlights for a detailed round-up of some of the FTC’s 2018 consumer protection accomplishments.
- Giving back. One of the most noteworthy gains for consumers is the FTC’s settlement with MoneyGram. The complaint charged that MoneyGram didn’t live up to its obligations to reduce fraud in its money transfer system. Under the terms of the settlement, the FTC got $125 million for people who wired money through MoneyGram and lost it to scammers.
- Setting records. The FTC set some new records for relief, namely: its largest civil penalty against a background screening company; its largest civil penalty in a children’s privacy case, which involved a video social networking app; and its largest judgment against an advertising agency.
- Order up! The FTC obtained 78 orders for redress, disgorgement, and permanent injunctions; 19 administrative orders; 12 orders for civil penalties; and 3 for contempt.
- Say yes to redress. More than 2.2 million consumers got back $439 million in redress directly from the FTC, and more than $1.3 billion in FTC cases in which the redress was administered by defendants. And, yes, that’s billion with a b.
- Breaking news. 1.2 million people subscribed to get email updates from the FTC.