[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 112 (Tuesday, June 11, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27119-27121]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12279]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 182 3084]


Staffordshire Property Management, LLC; Analysis To Aid Public 
Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed consent agreement; request for comment.

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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 July 11, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file comments online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``Staffordshire 
Property Management, LLC; File No. 182 3084'' 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 June 3, 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 July 11, 2019. 
Write ``Staffordshire Property Management, LLC; File No. 182 3084'' 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

[[Page 27120]]

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 ``Staffordshire 
Property Management, LLC; File No. 182 3084'' 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 July 11, 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 
Staffordshire Property Management, LLC and Aaron Fischer 
(``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 the comment period ends, 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 processing the 
applications of prospective tenants to rent residential properties that 
respondents manage. 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 non-disparagement 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 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 customers via letters or 
emails, and via their website, that the non-disparagement provisions in 
their form contracts are void and cannot be enforced, and that 
customers who entered into contracts with those provisions 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 non-compliance with 
the order.
    Part VI contains other requirements related to the Commission's 
monitoring of the respondent's order compliance.
    Part VII provides the effective dates of the order, including that, 
with

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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.
[FR Doc. 2019-12279 Filed 6-10-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6750-01-P