The Federal Trade Commission yesterday ruled that TurboTax maker Intuit violated US law with deceptive advertising and ordered the company to stop telling consumers that TurboTax is free without more obvious disclaimers. Intuit “engaged in deceptive advertising in violation of the FTC Act and deceived consumers when it ran ads for ‘free’ tax products and services for which many consumers were ineligible,” the FTC said in an announcement of its decision.
FTC commissioners voted 3–0 to issue a final order that upholds a September 2023 ruling against Intuit by the FTC’s chief administrative law judge.
“The Commission’s Final Order prohibits Intuit from advertising or marketing that any good or service is free unless it is free for all consumers or it discloses clearly and conspicuously and in close proximity to the ‘free’ claim the percentage of taxpayers or consumers that qualify for the free product or service. Alternatively, if the good or service is not free for a majority of consumers, it could disclose that a majority of consumers do not qualify,” the FTC said.
Intuit must “disclose clearly and conspicuously all the terms, conditions, and obligations that are required in order to obtain the ‘free’ good or service,” the FTC said. For ads in which there isn’t enough space to include all terms and conditions, Intuit “must disclose either that a majority of consumers do not qualify for free (if true) or the percentage that do as well as provide a link in such space-constrained online ads that details all the terms and conditions.”
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