Anyone who doesn’t like the FTC, and there are quite a few of them in the online marketing community, will find this story more than a little interesting. DOTAuthority.com, has announced through their attorneys that they were filing a counterclaim against the FTC in connection to actions taken against the company, and press releases done by the commission that they claim hurt the company in an very questionable and unethical manner.
Basically, DOTAuthority.com and their attorney Andrew Gordon and Bradley Gross are going after the FTC for their press releases which claimed that DOTAuthority was nothing more than “scammers” and “crooks,” even though no judgement was made by the courts to determine if that was correct. This “inflammatory language,” injured the reputation of the company, and caused them to lose clients — and they aren’t going to sit by and allow even the government to make claims they think they can’t back up.
The attorneys claim that DOTAuthority.com not only was not breaking the law, and providing a valuable service that had helped thousands of customers get necessary trucking permits, but that in a hearing, the Judge effectively disagreed with the claims of the FTC and lifted parts of the original injunction requested by the FTC. That this proves the FTC was seriously wrong in their claims and press releases.
This is an interesting tactic: accusing the FTC themselves of being misleading and deceptive, and using their authority to slander a company. This is a huge challenge against a tool that the FTC often uses: press releases and press conferences to make claims against companies to put pressure on them to settle by attacking them in public. If this is effective is yet to be seen, but have to believe their counsel has a serious strategy or two very large brass balls.
