Alexander v. Fed. Trade Comm'n, No. 14-3286 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseIn April 2014, two consumers filed a class action against BF Labs, asserting “deceptive and unconscionable business practices” in marketing and selling Bitcoin mining machines. Five months later, the Federal Trade Commission sued BF for unfair and deceptive acts, 15 U.S.C. 45(a). The court stayed pending suits and imposed a receivership. The stay was subsequently lifted. The two consumers were denied leave to intervene in the FTC action. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, agreeing that the interests of the consumers’ proposed class are subsumed within the public interest because the FTC, on behalf of consumers, sought relief for the same “deceptive and unconscionable business practices” alleged by the consumers. The consumers have not made the necessary “strong showing of inadequate representation.”
Court Description: Benton, Author, with Gruender and Beam, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Federal Trade Commission Act. The consumer class proposed intervenors did not have standing to intervene as a matter of right in the FTC's action to enjoin a company from marketing and selling Bitcoin mining machines; the interests of the consumers' proposed class were subsumed within the public interest because the FTC, on behalf of all consumers, sought relief for the deceptive and unconscionable business practices alleged by the consumers and there was no showing the FTC would not adequately represent those interests.
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