Care.com, a prominent online marketplace for finding and managing family care, has recently resolved charges that it misrepresented the extent of its job listings and renewed memberships without obtaining the users’ necessary consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that Care.com repeatedly misled consumers regarding the accuracy of their background check products and that they used deceptive marketing tactics to sell subscriptions. This led to the company facing multiple accusations of misleading its customers and the public. As part of the decision, Care.com has agreed to change its business practices, including clearly disclosing the limitations of its background checks, obtaining its users’ informed consent before automatically renewing memberships, and implementing a more effective program to review and monitor its professional caregiver advertisements. This comes as part of an effort by regulators to enforce transparency and fairness in online transactions, reinforcing that commerce sites like Care.com must be truthful with their customers about the services they are purchasing.

Care.com, a popular online marketplace for connecting families with caregivers, has reached a settlement concerning allegations that the company overstated the number of available jobs in its service and wrongly compelled members to renew their paid subscriptions.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged the firm with misleading consumers on multiple counts. These accusations include misrepresenting the accuracy of the caregivers’ background checks performed by the company, artificially inflating job listings, and unlawfully forcing subscription renewals.

The FTC alleges that the company would often depict all caregiver listings as having undergone thorough background checks. However, the regulatory body declares that such a screening process was not conducted for all the listed caregivers. The stringent checks which members paid extra for were also said to omit significant parts, such as cross-referencing a National Sex Offender Registry.

Additionally, the FTC claims that the company would show job postings even if they were no longer available, creating an illusion of more active engagements in the platform than there were in reality.

As for the forced membership renewals, Care.com had been automatically enrolling consumers into a recurring payment plan without the necessary affirmative consent from the users. Also, while the company marketed that these continuous subscriptions could be canceled at any time, the FTC alleges that doing so was made inconveniently difficult for users.

Care.com has agreed to pay $1 million to settle these allegations. It will also be required to obtain affirmative, informed consent from consumers before placing them on a recurring payment plan or making automatic withdrawals from their bank accounts or credit cards in the future.

Furthermore, the company must clarify their background check processes and ensure that all their marketing and advertisements truthfully represent available services.

The settlement sends a clear message to other online platforms about the importance of transparency and honesty in their operations.