A Q&A With Jeff Ifrah on the FTC’s Latest Draconian Tactics

By: Jeff Ifrah

Some lawyers who deal regularly with the Federal Trade Commission in investigations of allegedly false and deceptive online advertising have noticed that the agency is beginning to take steps in these investigations that are unprecedented and draconian – and that judges seem to be going along. Below is a set of questions and answers with Jeff Ifrah, founding partner of Ifrah Law, on these new enforcement methods.

1. What is the first thing that a lawyer representing a company being probed by the FTC on false-advertising charges can expect to see?

IFRAH: Agency lawyers will go to a federal district judge with a copy of a temporary restraining order (TRO) for the judge to sign on an ex parte basis (without the defendant or its lawyers being present). Judges are allowed to do this as long as a hearing is set in a few days for a preliminary injunction, at which the defendant is represented. Meanwhile, the company is essentially barred from doing business by the terms of the TRO.

2. What is the FTC’s usual next step?

IFRAH: The agency will then go before the same judge with a draft of a preliminary injunction that is pretty much identical to the temporary restraining order. These injunctions basically require the business to continue to remain at a standstill until a trial is held and a settlement is reached. In addition, they require the company to disclose on all its web sites that it is being investigated for false and deceptive practices and to disclose online all of its sensitive financial information and that of its owners. Very often, the defendant will not contest this injunction request by the FTC. It is remarkable how many lawyers simply capitulate and agree to these draconian orders and set their clients up to fail.

3. What’s wrong with that? Isn’t the injunction lifted when the defendant agrees to settle the case?

IFRAH: Yes, but by that time, it may be too late, and the company may have gone out of business as a result of the restrictions that were imposed on it by the injunction and as a result of the disclosures that it had to make.

4. Are there other problems with these preliminary injunctions?

IFRAH: Yes. The FTC usually asks for a preliminary injunction with many standard features, and the judge usually grants it. But no two cases or defendants are the same. The courts are not taking into account the fact that different situations require different results. Instead, the injunctions are overbroad and reach behavior that is beyond what is alleged in the complaint.

Some of these restraining orders and injunctions restrict how much money a defendant can spend in a month or what type of online advertising it can use while the case is pending. Other injunctions require affirmative behavior, such as a requirement that the defendant report to the FTC every time it creates or operates any type of business. In either case, the defendant is forced to open its entire existence to the FTC, and everything it does is subject to scrutiny.

Another problem with standard, overbroad injunctions is that a defendant may become uncertain as to what it must do to prevent being held in contempt of court for non-compliance. The language in the injunction is often so vague and undefined that the FTC can act in its discretion to find a defendant in contempt.

5. And is that the end of the story?

IFRAH: No, unfortunately, plaintiffs lawyers often look to copycat an FTC action, and as a result companies may then have yet another headache to deal with, if they haven’t already been irreparably damaged by the FTC’s actions.