Shutterstock has agreed to pay $35 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission allegations that it used deceptive subscription and cancellation practices, adding to a growing line of enforcement actions targeting so-called “negative option” marketing. According to the FTC, Shutterstock obscured important terms tied to annual subscription and content-pack plans and made it harder for customers to cancel than to sign up.

While the dollar amount is notable, the broader significance lies in what the case signals about the FTC’s enforcement priorities.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced a $35 million settlement with Shutterstock over allegations that the company used deceptive subscription practices, including misleading consumers about billing terms and making cancellation unnecessarily difficult. The action is the latest in the FTC’s broader campaign against so-called “dark patterns” — interface designs or workflows that steer consumers into purchases, renewals, or ongoing charges they may not have knowingly agreed to.

At a high level, the case reflects a familiar enforcement theory: regulators are focusing not just on what companies disclose, but on how those disclosures are presented and whether consumers can realistically avoid or end recurring charges.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Uber over its Uber One subscription program, alleging the company enrolled consumers without valid consent, failed to deliver promised savings, and made cancellation more difficult than advertised. The case, now pending in the Northern District of California, puts one of the country’s most visible subscription products at the center of the FTC’s ongoing campaign against so-called “dark patterns” in online commerce.

According to the agency, Uber used deceptive interfaces and billing practices to sign users up for Uber One and then created unnecessary friction when they tried to cancel.

The FTC’s lawsuit against Uber has taken on added significance with the agency’s announcement that participating states joined in an amended complaint, reinforcing a broader enforcement trend: consumer-protection cases involving billing, cancellation, and subscription design are increasingly being pursued through coordinated federal-state action.

For legal and compliance teams, that multistate posture matters.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced settlements with three of the world’s largest advertising agencies—WPP, Publicis, and Dentsu—over allegations that they coordinated brand-safety standards in a way that excluded or disadvantaged media outlets based on political content. The case, filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, is a significant signal that the FTC is willing to treat certain forms of industrywide content-related coordination as a competition problem, not merely a speech or platform-governance dispute.

According to the FTC, the agencies’ alleged conduct effectively created a boycott by steering advertising dollars away from publishers or platforms deemed politically objectionable under shared standards.

The Federal Trade Commission, joined by a coalition of states, has launched a significant enforcement action aimed at alleged collusion among major advertising agencies in the digital advertising market. The April 15 announcement is notable not just for the parties involved, but for where regulators are focusing next: beyond dominant technology platforms and into the intermediary ad ecosystem that influences pricing, placement, and competition across online media.

That matters because advertising agencies sit at a critical junction between brands, publishers, platforms, and consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission announced on April 22 that a federal court in Florida temporarily shut down what the agency describes as a nationwide health-care impersonation scheme. According to the FTC, the operation allegedly posed as government entities and major insurance carriers to deceive consumers seeking health coverage or related services.

The matter is notable not just for the alleged scope of the misconduct, but for the procedural posture: the FTC obtained emergency court relief at the outset.

A federal court has ordered a central operator in an alleged timeshare-exit scheme to pay $140 million and permanently barred him from the industry, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The ruling marks a significant consumer-protection result in a sector that has drawn sustained regulatory scrutiny over claims that distressed timeshare owners were promised relief that never materialized.

The case centers on allegations that the operation took millions from consumers through deceptive representations about its ability to help owners cancel or exit their timeshare obligations.

The Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ’s Antitrust Division have launched a joint public inquiry into the effectiveness of the Premerger Notification and Report Form, a notable step that signals possible changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino merger filing process. Although this is not a challenge to any one transaction, it is the kind of regulatory move that can reshape day-to-day antitrust practice long before the next headline merger fight reaches court.

At a high level, the agencies are asking whether the current form gives them the information they need to evaluate deals efficiently and accurately.