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Comment RSSFTC Sues and Settles with Ads4Dough in One Day
Written by Pace LattinSeptember 1, 2012 # 5:27 pm # Industry News, Specials # 7 Comments
ADS4Dough is one of the first companies to settle with the FTC over a plethora of secret investigations that have been happening behind the scenes in our industry. They had been under “investigation” for the last two years according to Jason Akatiff, the owner and CEO, and had decided that it wasn’t worth fighting the charges. According to Ads4Dough, it would probably cost them more money than what they would have to pay. So they came to an agreement with the FTC which allowed them to be sued, and have the case settled on the same exact day: not making for terribly exciting news nor a long court battle.
What is most interesting about this lawsuit, and ADS4Dough’s response is how forthright they were about the investigations: it wasn’t much a secret in the industry, and they had told their large affiliates and partners that it was happening. That had revealed to many that their legal position was that they were just running offers of a few clients, and those clients were responsible for the content of the advertising — not them. Instead of trying to hide and deny, they took a very proactive stance and even were the first to announce the settlement to their affiliates and publishers. We spoke to Akatiff briefly while he was on vacation in Europe, and he pointed out that this was just a drop in the bucket versus their overall income, and would have no affect on their day-to-day activities.
According to Akatiff:
….when they offered us the opportunity to settle for the same amount as the legal fees would have cost we carefully considered our options. After playing out all scenarios, settling with the FTC was the only thing that made logical sense for the security of our affiliates, and the future of our company.
As most of you know we’ve always been an innovator in the industry. Long before we ever saw anything from the FTC we were already re-tooling our business to move away from things that had potential problems… To support this new direction, we’ve recently added 5 new US based employees as well as a development office in Krakow, Poland. Also, our current growth period isn’t over, so if you or anyone you know are looking for an opportunity to work with a strong, industry leading company please contact us today.
According to insiders within the FTC, several other companies will be announcing similar settlements in the next few months.
Written by Pace Lattin
Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.
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Where I come from, what the FTC is doing is called extortion. I guess in government terms its called “settlement”.
What does the FTC do with all that money anyway?
I’m all for consumer protection, but I don’t feel any more protected from the actions of the FTC.
Well that’s called honesty all network owners should learn from A4D ….
KJ recently posted..Fraudulent CPA Networks Exposed
While we are on the subject of Akatiff….I want to remind everyone that he comes from a blackhat background.
A few months ago, I noticed several affiliates from Ads4Dough using phished accounts to spam from. You know, the kind where you get a reply back from your contacts asking you why you sent them a biz opp. This went on for months AFTER I reported it to Akatiff WITH THE affiliate IDs. I got NO response from Akatiff at all. Almost like he condoned affiliates who break CAN-SPAM law and the CFAA law. Forget gray area, blackhat, this was downright ILLEGAL.
I know Jason Akatiff for a long time and he has always been on top of the traffic we sent him. I always said if I was an affiliate he is one of the most trust worthy guys in the industry and would definitely work with him. I’m glad to see Ads4Dough has been so pro active in protecting their clients.
What offers were causing the problem? Can an average joe affiliate be notified in advance what to avoid?
Yep, they have been very upfront about the entire thing. I think they handled it better than any other network so far. Kept everyone informed. Worked their assess off to ensure that business continued as usual while all this was going on.
Kudos to Ads4Dough for shining through a tough time.
Not true…the FTC takes 10 months to fact find…….and they also do not allow for press releases of settlement! They are the only ones allowed to issue a release, it is actually in their settlement paperwork! Now I do agree that the FTC acts like the Mob, but unfortunately for JAson he is is not telling the truth as you can ask the head FTC investigator if the issue is settled. The case against Ads4dough was just issued on 8/30…….