Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: FTC files complaint against operator of Jerk.com website for deceiving consumers, (Apr 7, 2014)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

The FTC announced today that it has charged the operators of the website “Jerk.com” with gathering personal information from an online social networking service to create consumer profiles labeling people a “Jerk” or “not a Jerk,” and then falsely claiming that consumers could revise their online profiles by paying $30. The FTC is seeking an order barring the defendants’ deceptive practices, prohibiting them from using the personal information they improperly obtained, and requiring them to delete the information.

According to the FTC’s complaint, (In re Matter of Jerk LLC, File No. 122-3141), between 2009 and 2013 the defendants—Jerk, LLC and the operator of the website, John Fanning—created Jerk.com unique consumer profiles for more than 73 million people, including children.

In its complaint, the FTC charges that Jerk.com profiles often appeared in search engine results when consumers searched for an individual’s name. Upon viewing their photos on Jerk.com, many believed that someone they knew had created their Jerk.com profile. Jerk reinforced this view by representing that users created all the content on Jerk.

The defendants actually created the vast majority of the profiles by misusing personal information they improperly obtained through Facebook, the FTC alleged. They registered numerous websites with Facebook and then allegedly used Facebook’s application programming interfaces to download the names and photos of millions of Facebook users, which they in turn used to create nearly all the Jerk.com profiles.

In addition to buttons that allowed users to vote on whether a person was a “Jerk” or not, Jerk profiles included fields in which users could enter personal information about the subject or post comments about them. In some cases, the complaint alleges, the profile comment fields subjected people to derisive and abusive comments. The profiles also included millions of photos, including photos of children and photos that consumers claim they had designated on Facebook as private, the FTC complaint alleges.

The defendants also told consumers they could “use Jerk to manage your reputation and resolve disputes with people who you are in conflict with,” according to the FTC’s complaint. They allegedly charged consumers $25 to email Jerk.com’s customer service department and also falsely told consumers that if they paid $30 for a website subscription, they could access “premium features,” including the ability to dispute information posted on Jerk.com, and receive fast notifications and special updates. But according to the FTC, in many cases, consumers who paid the customer service or subscription fee often got nothing in return.

“In today’s interconnected world, people are especially concerned about their reputation online, and this deceptive scheme was a brazen attempt to exploit those concerns,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint was 4-0.

Companies: Jerk, LLC

News: ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews