Federal Trade Commission v. Lucas

Paul Jeffrey Lucas, an attorney, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment for the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in its action alleging that Lucas and other defendants engaged in deceptive acts or practices in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 45 (a) of the FTC Act. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo the grant of summary judgment. FTC v. Gill, 265 F.3d 944, 954 (9th Cir. 2001). We affirm.

The district court properly granted summary judgment on the FTC’s claim that Lucas violated § 45(a) by falsely promising customers a full refund if he failed to obtain a mortgage loan modification for them, because Lucas faded to establish a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether he made material representations and whether they were likely to secure and mislead customers. See id. at 950 (an act or practice is deceptive if there is a material representation that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances); see also FTC v. Cyberspace.Com, LLC, 453 F.3d 1196 , 1201 (9th Cir.2006) (“A misleading impression created by a solicitation is material if it involves information that is important to consumers and, hence, likely to affect…