[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 70 (Monday, April 13, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19666-19667]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-08386]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 132 3084]


Network Solutions, LLC; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid 
Public Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.

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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged 
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both 
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent 
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these 
allegations.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 7, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent online or on 
paper, by following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Network Solutions, 
LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment and file 
your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent by following the instructions on the web-based 
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Network 
Solutions, LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment 
and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver 
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office 
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, 
Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Evans, Bureau of Consumer 
Protection, (202) 326-2026, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 
20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34, 
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement 
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with 
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been 
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The 
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the 
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic 
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained 
from the FTC Home Page (for April 7, 2015), on the World Wide Web at: 
http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before May 7, 2015. 
Write ``Network Solutions, LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' 
on your comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will 
be placed on the public record of this proceeding, including, to the 
extent practicable, on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of

[[Page 19667]]

discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact 
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web 
site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number, 
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification 
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial 
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive health information, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section 
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive 
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole 
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the 
public interest.
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    \1\ In particular, the written request for confidential 
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and 
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions 
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/networksolutionsconsent by following the instructions on the Web-
based form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Network Solutions, LLC--
Consent Agreement; File No. 132 3084'' on your comment and on the 
envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite 
CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex 
D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the 
Commission by courier or overnight service.
    Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws 
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public 
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The 
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that 
it receives on or before May 7, 2015. You can find more information, 
including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in the 
Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

    The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject 
to final approval, an agreement containing a consent order from Network 
Solutions, LLC (``Network Solutions''). The Commission has placed the 
proposed Order on the public record for thirty days for receipt of 
comments by interested persons. Comments received during this period 
will become part of the public record. After thirty days, the 
Commission will again review the agreement and the comments received, 
and will decide whether it should withdraw from the agreement and take 
appropriate action or make final the agreement's proposed Order.
    Network Solutions advertises and sells web hosting services. The 
company's web hosting services allow customers to make Web pages 
available on the internet by storing their Web page information, 
including programming code, images, and videos, on Web servers owned or 
leased by Network Solutions, and by providing the technology and 
internet connectivity required to serve the Web pages on the internet. 
Network Solutions has sold its web hosting services subject to a 
thirty-day money back guarantee. It has advertised that guarantee on 
its Web site.
    The Commission's proposed Complaint alleges that Network Solutions 
failed to disclose adequately that its web hosting thirty-day money 
back guarantee could be subject to a cancellation fee. This 
cancellation fee was sometimes a substantial portion of the purchase 
price. Network Solutions did not disclose the cancellation fee on its 
Web pages advertising the guarantee. Instead, at the bottom of those 
Web pages, Network Solutions included a hyperlink to ``Terms and 
Conditions'' for the guarantee. This link often appeared in smaller 
print than the rest of the Web page and sometimes also appeared in blue 
text against a black background. The link opened a pop-up window that 
disclosed the existence of the cancellation fee. The Commission's 
proposed Complaint alleges that, coupled with the triggering 
representation that it offers a thirty-day money back guarantee, 
Network Solutions' failure to disclose adequately the cancellation fee 
is a deceptive act or practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act.
    The proposed Order contains provisions designed to prevent Network 
Solutions from engaging in the same or similar acts or practices in the 
future. Section I of the proposed Order requires Network Solutions to 
clearly and conspicuously disclose the material terms of any money back 
guarantees applicable to Web hosting services, including the existence 
and amount of any fee applicable to money-back guarantees. It also 
requires Network Solutions to refund the full purchase price of Web 
hosting sold under a money back guarantee, in response to a request 
that complies with the terms of that guarantee, unless any applicable 
fees are disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Section II of the 
proposed Order broadly prohibits misrepresentations with regard to 
refund or cancellation policies or any other material fact concerning 
the Web hosting services that Network Solutions offers or sells. 
Sections III through VI of the proposed Order are standard reporting 
and compliance provisions that allow the Commission to better monitor 
Network Solutions' ongoing compliance with the Order. Under Section 
VII, the Order will expire in twenty years, with certain exceptions.
    The purpose of this analysis is to aid public comment on the 
proposed Order. It is not intended to constitute an official 
interpretation of the Complaint or proposed Order, or to modify in any 
way the proposed Order's terms.

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-08386 Filed 4-10-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P