Care.com settles charges it inflated jobs listings and forced membership renewals

Care.com, a popular online marketplace for hiring home care services, has settled charges that it misrepresented the number of job listings on its platform and automatically renewed customer memberships without their explicit consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Care.com of using deceptive practices to attract new customers to its platform. The agency alleges that many of the job listings on Care.com were not current or legitimate, which gave users a misleading impression about the number of potential job opportunities. In addition, the FTC accused the company of automatically renewing customer memberships without acquiring their affirmative consent, which is required by law. To settle the charges, Care.com has agreed to pay $1 million and revise its business practices. This includes obtaining explicit consent from customers before renewing their memberships and clearly disclosing the terms of their automatic renewal policies. The company will also implement measures to ensure the accuracy of job listings on its platform. As part of the FTC's crackdown on deceptive online business practices, companies are now being held more accountable for their actions. This case serves as a reminder that when conducting business online, it's important to adhere to a high ethical standard to ensure that consumers are provided with truthful, clear, and non-misleading information.