United States of America: Issued ruling in lawsuit challenging Career Step's deceptive employment advertising (Federal Trade Commission v Career Step)

On 29 July 2024, the Northern District Court of Georgia issued a ruling against Career Step for deceptive practices related to its online career training and certification programmes. The ruling requires Career Step to pay USD 15.7 million for consumer redress and to cancel approximately USD 27.8 million in debts owed by students who enrolled between February 2020 and February 2023. The ruling also prohibits Career Step from engaging in deceptive advertising of any educational product or service, specifically from misrepresenting employment prospects, job placement rates, partnerships with employers, career services, externship programmes, programme duration, costs, content objectivity, or any material facts about its services. The ruling also requires Career Step to notify third-party platforms displaying incentivised reviews about the Federal Trade Commission's action and request removal of such reviews.