At the height of the pandemic, the Federal Trade Commission took
swift action to stamp out scammers and other actors looking to take
advantage of—or simply make a buck off—the crisis. One
of the early moves it made was to file separate lawsuits against a
pair of companies that sold sanitizer, face masks, and other
protective equipment gear (PPE), but failed to ship the products as
promised.
As of this week, the FTC has won summary judgment in both cases,
FTC v. QYK Brands LLC d/b/a Glowwy and FTC v. American
Screening, LLC. The cases highlight the two following
points.
First, compliance with the prehistoric Mail, Internet, or
Telephone Order Merchandise Rule (MITOR or "Mail Order
Rule") matters more than ever. The core allegation in each
lawsuit was that the defendants violated the Mail Order Rule, a
trade regulation rule first promulgated by the FTC in 1975 in
response to consumer complaints that catalog sellers failed to ship
ordered merchandise in a timely
