In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), privacy and consumer advocacy groups including CFA are asking that the FTC investigate whether Facebook has engaged in unfair or deceptive practices in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This request is based on Facebook’s practices that recently came to light when a court granted a request from the Center for Investigative Reporting to unseal documents from a class action lawsuit brought in 2012. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that Facebook tricked children into making in-game purchases and then made refunds almost impossible to obtain.
