It followed tens of thousands of complaints from Care.com customers, including many who thought they canceled memberships but were billed again.
The FTC said Care.com enticed customers to buy auto-renewing memberships by overstating the number of jobs, or "gigs," on its platform and how much people could earn from them.
It said Care.com knew or should have known a significant number of the jobs were unlikely to result in employment.
About 2.9 million U.S. consumers bought Care.com auto-renewing memberships between January 2019 and March 2022.
"Care.com used inflated job numbers and baseless earnings claims to lure caregivers onto its platform, and used deceptive design practices to trap consumers in subscriptions," FTC consumer protection chief Samuel Levine said.
Persons:
Care.com, Samuel Levine
Organizations:
Federal Trade Commission, IAC Inc, FTC, Austin
Locations:
Care.com, Waltham , Massachusetts, Austin , Texas