HomeAdvisor reached a settlement with the USA Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) over allegedly misleading techniques utilized by HomeAdvisor to promote leads through the use of unsubstantiated claims in regards to the high quality of the leads it offered to house enchancment professionals.
The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) is a federal company charged with defending and educating shoppers in addition to selling competitors.
It protects shoppers from unfair enterprise practices, together with on this case house companies suppliers who have been alleged to be misled by HomeAdvisor.
HomeAdvisor False and Deceptive Claims
The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) reached a settlement with HomeAdvisor, an organization affiliated with Angi (previously Angie’s Record), by which the corporate was accused of creating false claims in regards to the leads it was promoting.
An announcement famous that the misleading practices have been ongoing since at the least 2014.
HomeAdvisor is a house enchancment advice web site that provides data and rankings about house enchancment corporations.
Web site customers price corporations and supply in depth critiques on webpages which can be particular to every contractor providing companies in communities throughout the USA.
The HomeAdvisor web site earns cash by promoting results in the companies which can be listed on the positioning.
Screenshot of HomeAdvisor gross sales lead web page from March 14, 2016, courtesy of Web Archive
FTC Alleges False and Deceptive Claims By HomeAdvisor
The criticism by the FTC alleged that HomeAdvisor misled house contractors in regards to the leads they have been promoting to them.
In keeping with the FTC:
“The FTC’s March 2022 administrative criticism towards HomeAdvisor charged that since at the least mid-2014 it had made false, deceptive, or unsubstantiated claims in regards to the high quality and supply of the leads the corporate sells to service suppliers who’re in the hunt for potential clients.
The criticism additionally alleged that HomeAdvisor usually instructed service suppliers that its leads lead to jobs at charges a lot increased than it could substantiate.
Lastly, the criticism alleged that HomeAdvisor’s gross sales brokers misrepresented that the elective one-month mHelpDesk subscription was free.”
FTC order to pay defrauded house enchancment service suppliers was made in January 2023 and was not too long ago accredited by the FTC on the of April 2023.
The unique January 2023 FTC order referred to practices of HomeAdvisor as deceptive.
The FTC press launch introduced:
“As we speak’s order requires HomeAdvisor to refund house service suppliers hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and cease deceptive them in regards to the high quality of its leads,” mentioned Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Client Safety. ‘At the same time as the character of labor and the financial system change, the FTC will proceed to fight dishonest business practices aimed toward shoppers, staff, and small companies.’”
The accredited order requires HomeAdvisor to pay $7.2 million service suppliers who have been “defrauded.”
It additionally requires HomeAdvisor to cease making false claims about their leads, particularly that the leads are by people who find themselves prepared to rent service suppliers or that they’ve submitted a request on to HomeAdvisor.
Learn the official FTC press launch in regards to the approval of the order:
FTC Approves Ultimate Order towards HomeAdvisor, Inc. for Deceptively Advertising its Leads for Residence Enchancment Initiatives
Featured picture by Shutterstock/Csaba Peterdi
