A robocalling scheme that ripped off business owners by claiming to be collecting fees on Google's behalf to improve their search engine results has been fined $3.4m. But thanks to terrible enforcement efforts by federal regulators, that fine is probably not worth the paper it's written on, With the US government's failure to …

America's trade watchdog says it will soon mull over and potentially propose rules to protect folks' right to repair their phones, tablets, and PCs, among other things, without voiding warranties or breaking the things. The FTC this week announced it was seeking research and comments from the public in advance of a workshop …

America's consumer protection watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, has created a task force to dig into whether the tech industry has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The monopoly-abuse-busters will contain more than a dozen lawyers from the FTC's Bureau of Competition, along with a technology fellow who will "provide …

Facebook is reportedly close to breaking out its checkbook to settle the FTC's legal rumblings over the antisocial network's unique approach to netizens' privacy. The tech giant, led by warm bread enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg, will cough up several billion dollars to disappear allegations it violated the privacy of its users by …

AnalysisIt's been a couple of weeks of contradictory arguments in US trade watchdog the FTC's lawsuit against chip designer Qualcomm. So perhaps it was appropriate that the whole thing ended with a meta-contradiction concerning the nature of the legal system itself. In his closing arguments for Qualcomm – which has been accused of …

America's Federal Trade Commission has resumed work today, including its probe into Facebook, and is being urged by advocacy groups to hand the organisation a $2bn fine and break up the social networking empire. The FTC launched its investigation after last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal led to various admissions about the …

AnalysisQualcomm has launched its rebuttal of antitrust charges by claiming it's just too damn good at its job. America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken the chip designer to court in the States, accusing it of using its control of "standard-essential patents" (SEPs) to cut unfair deals with device makers, while refusing to …

The chip industry's strong-arm tactics have been laid bare this month in the anti-trust legal battle brought by America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Qualcomm. But as we enter day five of the trial, it's become clear that the case may pivot around a single payment made by Qualcomm to Apple back in 2011. It was a …

Breaking up is expensive: losing Apple as a customer meant Qualcomm missed out on 50 million cellular modem chipset sales for the latest batch of iPhones, and slipped into a net loss for its fiscal 2018. However, the chip designer insisted the worst is over. US-based Qualcomm on Wednesday released [PDF] its fourth-quarter and …

A US district judge has made a preliminary ruling that Qualcomm is obliged to license its technologies to its rivals. Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California published her judgement yesterday as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought in 2017 by the Federal Trade Commission. Judge Koh's …

America's trade watchdog's case against network device maker D-Link will go ahead next January – after a district judge rebuked the two sides for wasting money drawing up and filing demands for summary judgments. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought its lawsuit against Taiwanese D-Link early last year in California, …

Google has responded to an outcry over how it continues to keep a record on people's whereabouts – even when they specifically opt-out – by changing the word of its misleading help page. Earlier this week, researchers revealed that even if you went to Google's "location history" setting and turned it off, its most common iOS, …

No less than four federal agencies in the US are now investigating Facebook following yet more revelations over how it gave vast quantities of personal data to developers. As well as the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FBI, and America's financial watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission ( …

Two US senators have asked the nation's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take another look at Google's location harvesting. Democrat Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey fired off their request-that-can't-be-ignored (PDF) late last week, asking the FTC to “open an investigation into the potential deceptive acts and …

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revealed the names of six companies it formally warned over efforts to force consumers to use only their replacement parts. Following a freedom of information request from a number of people – including The Register – the federal consumer watchdog has published the letters [PDF] it sent, …

In a further sign that punching your way out of a paper bag is much harder than people assume, America's consumer rights watchdog the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ended up with one commissioner too many. Christine Wilson was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last week as one of five new FTC commissioners, but there is …

Uber hid a database hack from America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) while the very same watchdog was investigating Uber for a separate database hack, it was revealed on Thursday. The taxi app maker reached a settlement with the FTC in August 2017 after the biz allegedly "deceived consumers about its privacy and data …

America's Federal Trade Commission has told "six major companies" to cut it out when it comes to trying to force consumers to only use their replacement parts for repairs. The regulator has refused to name the companies that claim a product's warranty is voided if consumers don't use their special parts but did reveal that …