[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 70 (Monday, April 13, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19666-19667]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-08386]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 132 3084]
Network Solutions, LLC; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid
Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these
allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 7, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent online or on
paper, by following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Network Solutions,
LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment and file
your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent by following the instructions on the web-based
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Network
Solutions, LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment
and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor,
Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Evans, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, (202) 326-2026, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC
20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for April 7, 2015), on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before May 7, 2015.
Write ``Network Solutions, LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084''
on your comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will
be placed on the public record of this proceeding, including, to the
extent practicable, on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of
[[Page 19667]]
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web
site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent by following the instructions on the Web-
based form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Network Solutions, LLC--
Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment and on the
envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite
CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex
D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the
Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before May 7, 2015. You can find more information,
including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in the
Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, an agreement containing a consent order from Network
Solutions, LLC (``Network Solutions''). The Commission has placed the
proposed Order on the public record for thirty days for receipt of
comments by interested persons. Comments received during this period
will become part of the public record. After thirty days, the
Commission will again review the agreement and the comments received,
and will decide whether it should withdraw from the agreement and take
appropriate action or make final the agreement's proposed Order.
Network Solutions advertises and sells web hosting services. The
company's web hosting services allow customers to make Web pages
available on the internet by storing their Web page information,
including programming code, images, and videos, on Web servers owned or
leased by Network Solutions, and by providing the technology and
internet connectivity required to serve the Web pages on the internet.
Network Solutions has sold its web hosting services subject to a
thirty-day money back guarantee. It has advertised that guarantee on
its Web site.
The Commission's proposed Complaint alleges that Network Solutions
failed to disclose adequately that its web hosting thirty-day money
back guarantee could be subject to a cancellation fee. This
cancellation fee was sometimes a substantial portion of the purchase
price. Network Solutions did not disclose the cancellation fee on its
Web pages advertising the guarantee. Instead, at the bottom of those
Web pages, Network Solutions included a hyperlink to ``Terms and
Conditions'' for the guarantee. This link often appeared in smaller
print than the rest of the Web page and sometimes also appeared in blue
text against a black background. The link opened a pop-up window that
disclosed the existence of the cancellation fee. The Commission's
proposed Complaint alleges that, coupled with the triggering
representation that it offers a thirty-day money back guarantee,
Network Solutions' failure to disclose adequately the cancellation fee
is a deceptive act or practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act.
The proposed Order contains provisions designed to prevent Network
Solutions from engaging in the same or similar acts or practices in the
future. Section I of the proposed Order requires Network Solutions to
clearly and conspicuously disclose the material terms of any money back
guarantees applicable to Web hosting services, including the existence
and amount of any fee applicable to money-back guarantees. It also
requires Network Solutions to refund the full purchase price of Web
hosting sold under a money back guarantee, in response to a request
that complies with the terms of that guarantee, unless any applicable
fees are disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Section II of the
proposed Order broadly prohibits misrepresentations with regard to
refund or cancellation policies or any other material fact concerning
the Web hosting services that Network Solutions offers or sells.
Sections III through VI of the proposed Order are standard reporting
and compliance provisions that allow the Commission to better monitor
Network Solutions' ongoing compliance with the Order. Under Section
VII, the Order will expire in twenty years, with certain exceptions.
The purpose of this analysis is to aid public comment on the
proposed Order. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the Complaint or proposed Order, or to modify in any
way the proposed Order's terms.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-08386 Filed 4-10-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P