Penalty Amount
$500,000
The FTC finalized an order against CafePress for failing to secure consumer data and covering up a data breach. The company must implement comprehensive security measures, and its former owner must pay $500,000 in redress to victims.
CafePress and its owners must implement a comprehensive information security program including multifactor authentication, data minimization, encryption of SSNs, and third-party security assessments. Residual Pumpkin must pay $500,000 for victim redress, and PlanetArt must notify affected consumers.
In-house legal teams should review vendor agreements (with platforms like CafePress) and customer agreements to ensure robust data security and breach response clauses. Specifically, examine sections on data security standards, breach notification timelines and procedures, data retention and disposal policies, encryption specifications, and audit rights. Given the findings—storing sensitive data (e.g., SSNs) in plaintext, excessive data retention, and failure to implement known protections—contracts may need amendments to mandate regular security audits, require industry-standard encryption, limit data retention to necessary periods, and impose clear, prompt breach notification obligations with defined penalties for non-compliance.
Entity
CafePress
Industry
RetailOfficial Press Release
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/06/ftc-finalizes-action-against-cafepress-covering-data-breach-lax-security-0
192 3209 CafePress combined package without signatures
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/192%203209%20-%20CafePress%20combined%20package%20without%20signatures.pdf
Federal Trade Commission Enforcement Page
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement
"finalized an order against CafePress"
"Residual Pumpkin must pay $500,000"
"failed to implement reasonable security measures to protect the sensitive information of buyers and sellers stored on its network and failed to adequately respond to several security breaches."
$370K
The FTC settled with CafePress for failing to implement reasonable data security measures, leading to multiple breaches that exposed Social Security numbers and other sensitive data. As part of the settlement, over $370,000 in refunds are being distributed to 20,044 consumers who filed valid claims.
$2.0M
New Jersey joined a multistate $2 million settlement with online retailer CafePress over a 2019 data breach that exposed personal information of approximately 22 million consumers nationwide, including over 540,000 in New Jersey. The settlement requires CafePress to implement a comprehensive cybersecurity program, incident response plan, and third-party assessments for five years, with payment suspended pending compliance.
The FTC rescinded its 2021 Policy Statement on Breaches by Health Apps and Other Connected Devices, which had purported to apply the Health Breach Notification Rule to health apps and connected devices that collect consumer health information. The rescission follows the Commission's 2024 update to the Health Breach Notification Rule, which already covers health apps and connected devices like fitness trackers, and implements an executive order directing agencies to eliminate obsolete guidance documents. No company was charged or penalized; this is a deregulatory action.
$12.0M
The FTC alleged that payment processor Humboldt Merchant Services knowingly processed payments for more than 1,000 shell merchant entities serving as fronts for fraudulent companies engaged in unauthorized billing scams, despite red flags including chargeback rates nearly 10 times higher than card-brand thresholds. Under the proposed stipulated order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Humboldt will pay $12 million for consumer redress and is permanently banned from processing payments for merchants with a heightened risk of potential fraud.
$4.8M
The FTC charged Canada-based payment processor Nuvei Corporation and its subsidiaries with knowingly processing payments for fraudulent merchants, including more than $30 million in payments for the Reimage tech support scam from 2017 to 2023, as well as merchants making false earnings claims and impersonating government tax authorities. Under the stipulated order filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, Nuvei will pay $4.85 million for consumer redress, is banned from serving tech support telemarketers, and must implement robust merchant screening and chargeback monitoring practices. Note: this is a payments-fraud facilitation action under the FTC Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule, not a data privacy violation.
The FTC announced a seven-day extension of the public comment period on its proposed enforcement policy statement regarding personalized pricing, pushing the deadline from Sept. 18, 2026 to Sept. 25, 2026. Personalized pricing refers to using personal data to set prices based on what the company believes an individual consumer is willing to spend. This is a procedural announcement about draft agency guidance, not an enforcement action against any company, and no entity was named, no violation found, and no penalty imposed.