FTC Announces Approval of Final Order in Deceptive App Case Against Vulcan

The Federal Trade Commission has today announced the approval of its final order resolving its complaint against the San Francisco-based software company Vulcan on deceptive and misleading conduct allegations that Vulcan had purchased a browser extension game and replaced it with a program that caused the automatic installation of applications on the game users’ mobile devices without their permission.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Vulcan’s unfair and deceptive acts and practices in replacing a legitimate game with the new program severely disrupted the ability of the 200,000 users of the game to subsequently use their mobile devices and put their sensitive information stored on the device at risk. The FTC’s complaint also contained a false claims allegation over the inaccurate promotional and advertising claims made by the replacement program.   The original FTC complaint filed against Vulcan can be viewed here.

In its Order, the FTC prohibits Vulcan from offering “a product or service or materially change a Covered Product or Service” unless the company has  disclosed “clearly and conspicuously” in advance of any downloading or installation the types of information the product or service will access and how the information will be used to perform related services, and the nature of any material change to a covered product or service.  Also, the FTC expressly prohibits Vulcan from making a number of specific deceptive advertising claims. The FTC Order has been made available for viewing here.

The Vulcan enforcement action by the FTC makes a clear statement to software companies that the government is monitoring the nature of the software being distributed to consumers as well as the advertising claims made in connection with such software for any conduct that may rise to the level of an unfair and deceptive trade practice.  Any software company contemplating the replacement of an app previously installed by users with their permission with another an unauthorized app are on notice that the FTC does not approve of the practice and will exercise its enforcement authority against you once your conduct is brought to its attention.

 

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