FTC Doesn’t Win Them All

We've noted before that the FTC has been increasingly aggressive in pursuing a perceived wrong doing and has had a fair amount of success in court in those efforts. The FTC, however, does not win them all. Late last year, the FTC suffered a rare denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction involving a company that sold Bitcoin mining machines.

The FTC sued BF Labs and its principals alleging that they deceptively marketed Bitcoin mining machines and failed to deliver many of the machines that were sold. At the FTC's request, the court issued an ex parte Temporary Restraining Order ("TRO"). After hearing from the defendants, however, the court dissolved the TRO and denied the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction that would have included an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver.