[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 94 (Wednesday, May 15, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21782-21784]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-09955]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 182 3077]
A Waldron HVAC, LLC; Analysis To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both
the allegations in the complaint and the terms of the consent order--
embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 14, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file comments online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``A Waldron HVAC, LLC;
File No. 182 3077'' on your comment, and file your comment online at
https://www.regulations.gov by following the instructions on the web-
based form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex D),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center,
400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC
20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carl H. Settlemyer (202-326-2019),
Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600
Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing a consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for May 8, 2019), on the World Wide Web, at
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/commission-actions.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before June 14, 2019.
Write ``A Waldron HVAC, LLC; File No. 182 3077'' on your comment. Your
comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on the
public record of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable,
on the https://www.regulations.gov website.
Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online through the https://www.regulations.gov website.
If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``A Waldron
HVAC, LLC; File No. 182 3077'' on your comment and on the envelope, and
mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission,
Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610
(Annex D), Washington, DC 20580; or deliver your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex
D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the
Commission by courier or overnight service.
Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible
website at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for
making sure that your comment does not include any sensitive or
confidential information. In particular, your comment should not
include any sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone
else's Social Security number; date of birth; driver's license number
or other state identification number, or foreign country equivalent;
passport number; financial account number; or credit or debit card
number. You are also solely responsible for making sure that your
comment does not include any sensitive health information, such as
medical records or other individually identifiable health information.
In addition, your comment should not include any ``trade secret or any
commercial or financial information which . . . is privileged or
confidential''--as provided by Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C.
46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including in
particular competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing
processes, or customer names.
Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). In particular,
the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the
comment must include the factual and legal basis for the request, and
must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from
the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c). Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has
been posted on the public FTC website--as legally required by FTC Rule
4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment from the FTC website,
unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the requirements
for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General Counsel
grants that request.
Visit the FTC website at http://www.ftc.gov to read this Notice and
the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws that the
Commission administers permit the collection of public comments to
consider and use in this proceeding, as appropriate. The Commission
will consider all timely and responsive public comments that it
receives on or before June 14, 2019. For information on the
Commission's privacy policy, including routine uses permitted by the
Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, an agreement containing a consent order as to A
Waldron HVAC, LLC and Thomas J. Waldron (``respondents'').
The proposed consent order (``order'') has been placed on the
public record for 30 days for receipt of comments by interested
persons. Comments received during this period will become part of the
public record. After 30 days, the Commission will again review the
order and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw the order or make it final.
This matter involves the respondents' use of non-disparagement
provisions in consumer form contracts in the course of selling their
recreational horseback riding services. The complaint alleges that the
respondents violated Section 2(c) of the Consumer Review Fairness Act
(``CRFA'') by offering to consumers form contracts that contained
nondisparagement provisions made void by Section 2(b) of the CRFA. The
CRFA defines a form contract as a contract with standardized terms,
used in the course of selling or leasing goods or services, and imposed
on an individual without a meaningful opportunity for such individual
to negotiate the standardized terms.
The order includes injunctive relief that prohibits these alleged
violations and fences in similar and related conduct involving the use
of contract terms that prohibit, restrict, penalize, or transfer rights
in consumer reviews or evaluation of the respondents, their goods, or
their services. The CRFA authorizes the Commission to seek civil
penalties for knowing violations, but the complaint does not allege
that the respondents' violations were knowing, and the order does not
provide for monetary relief.
Part I prohibits, in the sale or leasing of any good or service,
the respondents from: Offering to any prospective customer a contract,
or offering to any customer a renewal contract, that
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includes a review-limiting term; requiring that a customer accept such
a term as a condition of the respondents' fulfillment of their
obligations under contracts entered into before the effective date of
the order; or attempting to enforce or assert the validity of such a
term in customer contracts entered into before the effective date of
the order. Part I would not require that the respondents publish or
host the content of any person, affect any other legal duty of a party
to a contract, or affect any cause of action arising from the breach of
such duty.
Part II requires the respondents to notify by mail or email
customers with whom they entered into form contracts with a non-
disparagement provision on or after March 14, 2017 that the non-
disparagement provision is void and cannot be enforced, and that those
customers can publish their honest reviews about the respondents, even
if their comments are negative.
Part III requires the respondents to submit signed acknowledgments
that relevant personnel received the order.
Part IV requires the respondents to file compliance reports with
the Commission, and to notify the Commission of bankruptcy filings or
changes in company structure that might affect compliance obligations.
Part V contains recordkeeping requirements for personnel records,
consumer contracts, communications with consumers threatening any legal
action relating to any review; and court filings and the company's
discovery responses in legal actions over consumer reviews, as well as
all records necessary to demonstrate compliance or noncompliance with
the order.
Part VI contains other requirements related to the Commission's
monitoring of the respondents' order compliance.
Part VII provides the effective dates of the order, including that,
with exceptions, the order will terminate in 20 years.
The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the
order, and it is not intended to constitute an official interpretation
of the complaint or order, or to modify the order's terms in any way.
By direction of the Commission.
April J. Tabor,
Acting Secretary.
Statement of the Federal Trade Commission
April 24, 2019
Today, the Commission announces cases against Clixsense and i-
Dressup,\1\ which include allegations that the companies failed to
employ reasonable security to protect consumers' sensitive data. The
orders obtained in these matters contain strong injunctive provisions,
including new requirements that go beyond requirements from previous
data security orders. For example, the orders include requirements that
a senior officer provide annual certifications of compliance to the
Commission, and explicit provisions prohibiting the defendants from
making misrepresentations to the third parties conducting assessments
of their data security programs. These new requirements will provide
greater assurances that consumers' data will be protected going
forward.
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\1\ Although the Commission's settlement with i-Dressup
addresses broader COPPA violations, this statement focuses
specifically on the data security requirements set forth in the
proposed stipulated order.
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Since joining the Commission, we have instructed staff to closely
review our orders to determine whether they could be strengthened and
improved--particularly in the areas of privacy and data security.
Through ongoing discussions both internally and with external
stakeholders, including through our public Hearings on Competition and
Consumer Protection in the 21st Century and the comment process,\2\ we
continue to consider changes to our orders. We will adjust our data
security orders, as needed, to reflect our ongoing discussions
regarding the FTC's remedial authority and needs, as well as the
specific facts and circumstances of each case.
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\2\ See, e.g., FTC Hearings on Competition and Consumer
Protection in the 21st Century (Session 9--Data Security), Dec. 11-
12, 2018, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/ftc-hearing-competition-consumer-protection-21st-century-december-2018.
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We are particularly committed to strengthening the order provisions
regarding data security assessments of companies by third parties. The
Commission expects that these third parties will faithfully assess data
security practices to identify potential noncompliance with appropriate
order provisions. Future orders will better ensure that third-party
assessors know they are accountable for providing meaningful,
independent analysis of the data practices under examination. The
announcements today reflect the beginning of our thinking, but we
anticipate further refinements, and these orders may not reflect the
approach that we intend to use in every data security enforcement
action going forward.
[FR Doc. 2019-09955 Filed 5-14-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P