FTC cracks down on H&R Block for deleting tax data when users want to downgrade
The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against tax prep company H&R Block for allegedly wasting consumers’ time and money. The company deceptively marketed its services and made them difficult to downgrade, the FTC claims in an administrative complaint issued Friday.
“H&R Block designed its online products to present an obstacle course of tedious challenges to consumers, pressuring them into overpaying for its products,” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine said in a statement.
The administrative complaint is similar to a lawsuit but results in proceedings before the FTC’s in-house administrative law judge. Findings can ultimately be appealed to a federal court.
The agency alleges that H&R Block steered...