The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans vacated a 2024 Federal Trade Commission order against Intuit. The 3-0 ruling threw out a ban that prevented the company from advertising TurboTax products as free.
The court ruled the FTC violated the constitutional separation of powers by using an in-house administrative judge. Judges determined that deceptive advertising cases must be decided in federal court rather than through internal agency proceedings.
The original FTC order followed a ruling that Intuit deceptively marketed software to taxpayers who were ineligible for free services. The commission sought to require Intuit to disclose the exact percentage of taxpayers qualifying for free offers. Intuit appealed the decision, calling the internal agency process biased and broken. The ruling returns the matter to the FTC.