On September 8, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell issued an initial decision ruling that Intuit Inc. (Intuit) “engaged in deceptive advertising in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act” by misleading consumers with its “free” service claims. In the decision, which is subject to appeal to the full commission, Judge Chappell found that Intuit deceptively marketed TurboTax, its online tax preparation filing software, “when it ran ads for ‘free’ tax products and services for which many consumers were ineligible.”Continue Reading FTC Judge Rules That Intuit’s “Free” Service Ads Violated the FTC Act

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in partnership with the Department of Justice, announced two settlements with providers for Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program), following allegations under state and federal false claims acts that the providers submitted fraudulent claims to the government from 2014 through 2016. Consequently, Dignity Health, Twin Cities Community Hospital, and Sierra Vista Regional

On December 8, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a statement regarding its intent to investigate certain participants in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.[1] This announcement, just a few months after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first-ever False Claims

In 2020, two Las Vegas communications consultants brought a lawsuit against a group of top online booking companies. The complaint alleges that the defendant travel companies avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in hotel room taxes by buying the rooms at discounted prices, selling them to consumers at higher rates, and then, paying taxes

On February 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to a $930,000 settlement with Comprehensive Health Services (CHS) to resolve False Claims Act allegations. The resolution represents the department’s first settlement under the False Claims Act since instituting its Civil Cyber Fraud Initiative in October 2021.[1] This is a watershed moment in the