Kobeni Inc.
The FTC alleged that Kobeni Inc. sent deceptive health-insurance emails claiming consumers would violate federal law unless they acted immediately. Kobeni and its president settled the FTC Act and CAN-SPAM charges for $350,000.
Resolved. Refunded, settled, ceased operating, or the claim did not hold up. Kept for the record.
Identity
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- Registrations
- FTC v. Kobeni Inc. (FTC case 132-3273, 2014)
- Jurisdictions
- United States (federal)
Email marketer settled deceptive health-insurance claims
The FTC charged Kobeni Inc. and its president, Yair Shalev, over commercial emails sent in advance of the Affordable Care Act rollout. According to the complaint, the defendants sent messages from at least May through August 2013 that falsely told recipients they would violate federal law unless they immediately selected health-insurance coverage. Some messages described a deadline or said coverage would become mandatory on a stated date.
Links in the emails led to websites displaying insurance advertisements. The website operators paid the defendants when consumers clicked links in those ads. The FTC said the insurance companies whose advertisements appeared on the sites had not authorized the email messages.
The FTC alleged that these representations violated the FTC Act. It also charged CAN-SPAM Act violations because the emails did not clearly and conspicuously notify recipients of a right to opt out of future commercial messages and did not include the sender’s physical postal address. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Kobeni and Shalev later agreed to pay $350,000 to resolve the charges. The settlement order permanently prohibited material misrepresentations about products or services, including claims that consumers would violate federal law unless they selected insurance or that the law required a purchase. It also barred CAN-SPAM Act violations. The court entered the order on August 7, 2014.
What is not established
The supplied releases describe FTC allegations and a settlement. They do not state that Kobeni or Shalev admitted those allegations, and they do not provide a consumer-loss total.
Sources
Every claim above rests on one of these. Open them and check.
- Enforcement action January 23, 2014
- Enforcement action August 12, 2014
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First recorded January 23, 2014 · Last updated August 12, 2014