- The FTC announced that online bill payment firm Doxo will pay $2.1 million to settle FTC allegations that the company and two of its co-founders used misleading search ads to impersonate consumers’ billers and misled consumers about millions of dollars in fees they tacked on to consumers’ bills.
- In a 2024 complaint, the FTC alleged that Doxo and two of its co-founders, Steve Shivers and Roger Parks, used search engine advertising and other marketing tactics that misled consumers into believing Doxo was an official payment provider for utility, car loans, and other bills, and also that Doxo’s third-party payment page sometimes displayed the names and logos of other companies, despite Doxo not having a relationship with most companies it claimed were part of its payment network. The FTC further alleged that Doxo added extra “delivery fees” which were not clearly disclosed onto the bills it paid on behalf of consumers and signed consumers up for its recurring subscription program.
- The proposed order settling FTC’s allegations requires Doxo to pay $2.1 million to reimburse consumers, and, additionally, it prohibits Doxo and the co-founders from misrepresenting their affiliation with billers when promoting or offering bill payment services, making misrepresentations regarding the amount consumers will pay or the nature or purpose of any fee, using false representations to obtain consumers financial information, making misrepresentations regarding a negative option feature including the ability to cancel and must notify the consumers when they will be charged for a particular good or service, and lastly from charging consumers without obtaining their expressed informed consent.