The Federal Trade Commission said it has reached an $8.5 million settlement with Care.com to settle allegations that the website "systematically deceived caregivers who were looking for jobs while failing to give families seeking care a simple way to cancel their paid memberships."
As part of the settlement, Care.com will be required to refund customers who sought the company's services.
The website allows caregivers to create job postings to look for work providing care to children and seniors and assisting with household chores. The FTC said that 2.9 million consumers were subscribed to Care.com between 2019 and 2023.
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In a court filing, the Federal Trade Commission said that Care.com "grossly inflates the number of jobs it advertises as available on its platform by including a significantly large number of job postings that it knows, or should know, are unlikely to result in employment." The FTC also alleged that the website deceived users about how much money consumers can earn when they get a job
Care.com has disputed these claims, adding it was prepared to fight the allegations in court, but wanted to resolve the matter.
"We would not be in business for long if we manipulated optics, inflated statistics and attempted to trick our customers. We have found that many care seekers prefer to see a level of interest in their job post before committing to a premium membership, and our basic service tier offers this 'try before you buy' opportunity. This does not mean that there is little to no chance that a caregiver will be hired for these jobs. When a seeker sees the array of caregivers available, the commitment to premium membership—which enables seekers to contact and hire caregivers—follows naturally," the company said in a press release.
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The Federal Trade Commission said the court order will force Care.com to change how it does business.
“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,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The order announced today puts a stop to these unlawful practices, returns millions of dollars to consumers, and helps ensure an honest marketplace for families looking for care and caregivers looking for work.”
