[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 22, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10901-10902]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-03560]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 222 3019]


The Bountiful Company; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid 
Public Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed consent agreement; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged 
violations of Federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices. The attached Analysis of Proposed Consent Order 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 March 24, 2023.

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. Please write ``The Bountiful 
Company; File No. 222 3019'' 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, please 
mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, 
Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 
(Annex P), Washington, DC 20580.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Ostheimer (202-326-2699), 
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 Sec.  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 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 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 March 24, 2023. 
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.
    Because of heightened security screening, postal mail addressed to 
the Commission will be subject to delay. We strongly encourage you to 
submit your comments online through the https://www.regulations.gov 
website.
    If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``The Bountiful 
Company; File No. 222 3019'' 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 P), Washington, DC 20580.
    Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible 
website at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for 
making sure your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential 
information. In particular, your comment should not include 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 your comment does not include 
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 Sec.  
4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including 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 Sec.  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 Sec.  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 https://www.regulations.gov 
website--as

[[Page 10902]]

legally required by FTC Rule Sec.  4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove 
your comment from that website, unless you submit a confidentiality 
request that meets the requirements for such treatment under FTC Rule 
Sec.  4.9(c), and the General Counsel grants that request.
    Visit the FTC website at http://www.ftc.gov to read this document 
and the news release describing the proposed settlement. The FTC Act 
and other laws 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 
it receives on or before March 24, 2023. 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 (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has 
accepted, subject to final approval, an agreement containing a consent 
order from The Bountiful Company (``Bountiful''). The proposed consent 
order (``proposed order'') has been placed on the public record for 
thirty days for receipt of comments from interested persons. Comments 
received during this period will become part of the public record. 
After 30 days, the Commission will again review the agreement and the 
comments received and will decide whether it should withdraw from the 
agreement and take appropriate action or make final the agreement's 
proposed order.
    This matter involves Bountiful's alleged manipulation of the 
Amazon.com product pages for a number of its Nature's Bounty and 
Sundown brand dietary supplement products. Bountiful is a vendor to 
Amazon, Inc., which allows its vendors to create or submit requests to 
create ``variation'' relationships between products sold on Amazon.com 
that are substantially similar, like a shirt which is available in 
different sizes and colors. The product detail page of products that 
are in a variation relationship displays the total number of ratings 
and reviews, the average star rating, and the individual reviews for 
all the products in the variation relationship. All the products in a 
variation relationship also share any ``#1 Best Seller'' or ``Amazon's 
Choice'' badges.
    According to the Commission's proposed complaint, during 2020 and 
2021, Bountiful submitted requests to Amazon to create numerous 
variation relationships involving products with different formulations. 
The proposed complaint quotes a Bountiful employee explaining that they 
did this with new products to ``try and ramp them faster as they were 
NOT selling and we wanted to give them a little boost in 
R[atings]&R[eviews] to gain visibility and allow them to also borrow 
the `amazon choice' badge and best seller badge which worked.''
    The proposed complaint alleges that Bountiful violated Sections 
5(a) and 12 of the FTC Act by misrepresenting that: (a) the apparent 
reviewers of certain of its products sold on Amazon.com had used and 
endorsed the products; (b) certain of its products sold on Amazon.com 
had received the numbers of customer ratings appearing on their 
Amazon.com product pages; (c) certain of its products sold on 
Amazon.com had obtained the average star ratings displayed on their 
Amazon.com product pages; (d) certain of its products sold on 
Amazon.com were number one best sellers; and (e) certain of its 
products sold on Amazon.com had earned an Amazon's Choice badge.
    The proposed order contains provisions designed to prevent 
Bountiful from engaging in similar acts and practices in the future and 
to provide monetary relief.
    Provision I prohibits Bountiful from making any misrepresentation 
about or through the ratings, reviews, badges, or endorsements of any 
of its products or services, including false claims that someone 
reviewed or used the product or service or about the number of ratings 
or reviews the product or service has, its average star rating, its 
having earned an Amazon's Choice badge, or its being a best seller. 
Provision II prohibits Bountiful from distorting or otherwise 
misrepresenting what consumers think of its products or services by 
creating relationships between different products sold online or by 
procuring, suppressing, boosting, organizing, selectively publishing, 
up-voting, down-voting, or editing consumer reviews or ratings of its 
products or services.
    Provision III requires Bountiful to pay the Commission $600,000 
within eight days of the effective date of the order. Provision IV sets 
out additional requirements related to the monetary relief.
    Provisions V through VIII of the proposed order are reporting and 
compliance provisions. Provision V requires acknowledgement of the 
order and dissemination of the order now and in the future to persons 
with responsibilities relating to the subject matter of the order. 
Provision VI ensures notification to the FTC of changes in corporate 
status and mandates that the company submit an initial compliance 
report to the FTC. Provision VII requires the company to create and 
retain certain documents relating to its compliance with the order. 
Provision VIII mandates that the company make available to the FTC 
information or subsequent compliance reports, as requested. Provision 
IX states that the proposed order will remain in effect for 20 years, 
with certain exceptions.
    The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the 
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official 
interpretation of the complaint or proposed order, or to modify in any 
way the proposed order's terms.

    By direction of the Commission.
April J. Tabor,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2023-03560 Filed 2-21-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P