DOTAuthority.com (and other defendants) settled FTC charges that they misled consumers into believing that its motor carrier registration service was affiliated with the government.

The FTC alleged that the defendants impersonated, or falsely claimed affiliation with, the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies in order to get small trucking businesses to pay them for federal and state motor carrier registrations.

The FTC also alleged that the defendants misled consumers about the nature of the amounts being charged and that they failed to properly disclose that consumers were being enrolled in an automatic billing service in violation of the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act.

As part of the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay $900,000.