The Federal Trade Commission ruled in a final order and opinion Monday that TurboTax, the popular tax filing software, engaged in deceptive advertising and banned the company from advertising its services for free unless it is free for all customers.

By running ads for “free” tax services that many customers were not qualified for, the tax filing software violated the FTC Act and deceived consumers, the agency said.

The FTC had first sued Intuit, TurboTax’s owner, for its deceptive advertising in 2022. The FTC staff alleged most tax filers couldn’t use the company’s “free” services — “such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.” TurboTax advertising their products as free misled those customers, according to the FTC.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Why the fuck did this take like 15 years to do though?

    They’ve probably pulled this “free” scam a billion times already, and it was obvious AF that it was intentionally deceptive from day one

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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      10 months ago

      Because they used all that money they made from the free filings to pay lawyers and lobbyists to show that technically - technically - it really is free from a certain perspective. If you really squint.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, I’m just so sick of modern “justice”. Up until recently I would’ve had my life destroyed over a bag of weed.

        But companies intentionally defraud hundreds of millions of people, that’s not a problem

    • Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net
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      10 months ago

      Because the Traitor Party wants paying taxes to be as difficult as possible so people will vote them in to lower taxes

    • Snapz@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You need to see the world outside yourself more. Yes, it was obvious to you, not to grandpa or to Marge who works at the diner down the street

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago
        1. I was talking about regulators
        2. apparently you think people are too stupid to know that they were forced to pay for something advertised as free. (Not related to the point but since you brought it up)

        Can’t agree with you on point 2