Mary M. Gardner

Firm/Organization: Venable LLP

Latest Articles

$40 Million Reasons to Have RCTs

By Leonard L. Gordon, Mary M. Gardner & Gary R. Dunn

October 21, 2019

On September 18, 2019, the FTC prevailed in its long-waged battle against Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals. In a per curiam opinion, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision, holding the defendants in contempt for violating the court’s prior order, which enjoined the defendants from making certain claims about health products without “competent and reliable scientific evidence.” Fed. Trade Comm’n v. Nat’l Urological Grp., Inc., No. 17-15695, 2019 WL 4463503, at *1 (11th Cir. Sept. 18,…

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Mr. Smith Goes to New York: Takeaways from the Keynote Address of the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the NAD Annual Conference

By Christopher S. Crook, Leonard L. Gordon, Mary M. Gardner & Elliot Kelly

September 24, 2019

The National Advertising Division (“NAD”) held its Annual Conference in New York yesterday. Andrew Smith, the head of the Bureau of Consumer Protection for the FTC, delivered the keynote address and provided attendees with an excellent overview of the past year’s landmark decisions in FTC jurisprudence. For those who frequent this blog, it comes as no surprise that the hottest discussions focused on the recent trend among courts to question the FTC’s broad interpretation of…

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Alzheimer’s and Cancer? FTC Announcement Shows That FDA Is Not the Only Agency That Is “Serious”

By Leonard L. Gordon, Mary M. Gardner & Michael A. Munoz

September 23, 2019

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission issued a press release announcing that it had issued warning letters to three unnamed sellers of cannabidiol (CBD) products who marketed everything from gummies to creams with bold claims that the products could treat a wide variety of the most serious diseases known to man. This follows an earlier wave of letters that it issued jointly with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last March, which warned…

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Exactly How Long is the Long Arm of the Law? The FTC Seeks to Extend its Reach to Offshore Payment Processors

By Leonard L. Gordon, Mary M. Gardner & Matthew S. Renick

July 25, 2019

We frequently hear about the “long arm of the law,” but, in the case of the Federal Trade Commission, just how far does that arm actually reach? The FTC recently filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California adding SIA Transact Pro, a Latvian payment processor, and its CEO as additional defendants in its case against Apex Capital Group, LLC and other parties. The amended complaint alleges that…

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Federal Court to FTC: Show the Receipts When Seeking Disgorgement

By Leonard L. Gordon & Mary M. Gardner

June 18, 2019

A new decision out of the Middle District of Florida may signal further erosion of the FTC’s authority to seek monetary relief as it sets forth a heightened standard of proof the FTC must satisfy to support its disgorgement calculation. In FTC v. Vylah Tech LLC, the court found Vylah Tech, a small tech company, liable for disseminating false and misleading information regarding its computers. However, the court completely shut down the FTC’s demand for…

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Stop the Presses: Third Circuit Limits FTC’s Access to Federal Court for Past Conduct

By Leonard L. Gordon, Michael S. Blume, Ellen T. Berge, Mary M. Gardner & Matthew S. Renick

February 26, 2019

The Federal Trade Commission suffered a significant blow yesterday. In a decision that many saw coming—bloggers here included—the Third Circuit curtailed authority the FTC has been using for decades to confront allegedly unlawful past conduct. The decision has a direct impact on the ability of the FTC to obtain injunctions against defendants for alleged past misdeeds. In its ruling, the Third Circuit held that the FTC can only go directly into federal court where it…

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BlueHippo in the Red? Not on the FTC’s Watch

By Mary M. Gardner, Ellen T. Berge & Leonard L. Gordon

February 13, 2019

Several high profile bankruptcies have occurred in recent years. Most would consider a bankruptcy proceeding a last resort. But some, seeking to expunge a debt, have contemplated that bankruptcy may be a safe way to avoid the long-arm of the law. The Federal Trade Commission, however, has taken great steps to ensure that an FTC judgment firmly stays on a wrongdoer’s balance sheet. In late December of last year, the FTC convinced a bankruptcy court…

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Court Sets Important Limits on Ability of FTC to Challenge Past Conduct

By Leonard L. Gordon & Mary M. Gardner

October 17, 2018

Believe it or not, the FTC’s power is not limitless. We wrote previously on an antitrust decision (FTC v. Shire ViroPharma) limiting the FTC’s ability to proceed in federal court to challenge past violations of the FTC Act. This week a judge extended that reasoning to the FTC’s consumer protection enforcement authority. In FTC v. Hornbeam Special Situations, Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. held that when the FTC proceeds in federal court pursuant to Section…

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Is Past Prologue for FTC Jurisdiction?

By Leonard L. Gordon & Mary M. Gardner

March 29, 2018

A recent decision in an antitrust case brought by the FTC in the U.S. District Court for Delaware could significantly limit the FTC’s ability to bring consumer protection cases in federal court and return the FTC to an enforcement model that it largely abandoned in the early 1980’s. In that case, the court held that the FTC can only sue in federal court where it is able to allege that the defendant is violating or…

Mary M. Gardner

$40 Million Reasons to Have RCTs

Mr. Smith Goes to New York: Takeaways from the Keynote Address of the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the NAD Annual Conference

Alzheimer’s and Cancer? FTC Announcement Shows That FDA Is Not the Only Agency That Is “Serious”

Exactly How Long is the Long Arm of the Law? The FTC Seeks to Extend its Reach to Offshore Payment Processors

Federal Court to FTC: Show the Receipts When Seeking Disgorgement

Stop the Presses: Third Circuit Limits FTC’s Access to Federal Court for Past Conduct

BlueHippo in the Red? Not on the FTC’s Watch

Court Sets Important Limits on Ability of FTC to Challenge Past Conduct

Is Past Prologue for FTC Jurisdiction?

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