{"id":647907,"date":"2025-01-03T22:20:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T19:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ftc-orders-ai-accessibility-startup-accessibe-to-pay-1m-for-misleading-advertising\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T22:20:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T19:20:26","slug":"ftc-orders-ai-accessibility-startup-accessibe-to-pay-1m-for-misleading-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ftc-orders-ai-accessibility-startup-accessibe-to-pay-1m-for-misleading-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"#FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined accessiBe, a startup that claims to\u00a0make websites more compatible with the screen readers blind people rely on to access the internet, for false advertising and compensating reviewers without disclosing that it sponsored the reviews.<\/p>\n

In a proposed order, the FTC would require<\/a> accessiBe to pay $1 million that may be used to refund the company\u2019s customers, and prohibit accessiBe from overstating the capabilities of its tools. The order would also mandate that accessiBe \u201cclearly and conspicuously\u201d highlight connections to endorsers of its services.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies looking for help making their websites [accessibility] compliant must be able to trust that products do what they are advertised to do,\u201d Samuel Levine, director of the FTC\u2019s bureau of consumer protection, said in a statement. \u201cOverstating a product\u2019s \u2026 capabilities without adequate evidence is deceptive, and the FTC will act to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

accessiBe, based in New York, sells an AI-powered plug-in that it says can make any website compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a set of technical criteria used to assess website accessibility. The company pitches its services as a shield against lawsuits for noncompliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), the federal civil rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Dekel Skoop, Gal Vizel, and Shir Ekerling, accessiBe has managed to raise $58.5 million in venture capital from investors including Los Angeles-based private equity firm K1. At one point, accessiBe\u2019s customers included Pillsbury, Benadryl, Playmobil, the Los Angeles Lakers, and government agencies like the Louisiana Department of Health.<\/p>\n

But many advocacy groups and customers say that accessiBe\u2019s products don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Tools like accessiBe\u2019s can prevent the screen reading app<\/a>lications used by blind and low-vision users, which read out loud what\u2019s on websites, from reading pages correctly \u2014 and even render some webpages unnavigable. Customers have sued<\/a> accessiBe in class action lawsuits, alleging that the company\u2019s products failed to make their websites fully compliant with ADA standards.<\/p>\n

During its 2021 convention, the National Federation of the Blind described accessiBe\u2019s marketing and business practices as \u201cdisrespectful and misleading.\u201d That same year, 400 blind people, accessibility advocates, and software developers signed an open letter<\/a> calling on companies that use automated services like accessiBe\u2019s to stop.<\/p>\n

In 2021, more than 400 companies with an accessibility widget or overlay on their website were sued over accessibility,\u00a0per<\/a> digital accessibility provider UsableNet.<\/p>\n

accessiBe isn\u2019t the only vendor selling automated accessibility tools for websites. But it has been<\/a> accused<\/a> of adopting a \u201cdefensive,\u201d dismissive style of engagement with the accessibility community \u2014 and of making lofty claims.<\/p>\n

According to the FTC, accessiBe not only fell short of its promises to clients, but engaged in misleading marketing. accessiBe \u201cdeceptively formatted third-party articles and reviews\u201d to appear as if they were independent opinions by impartial authors, said the agency in a press release, and failed to reveal \u201cmaterial connections\u201d to supposedly objective reviewers.<\/p>\n

The FTC\u2019s order, which was approved unanimously by the FTC\u2019s five commissioners, will be subject to public comment for 30 days, after which the Commission will decide to make it final.<\/p>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined accessiBe, a startup that claims to\u00a0make websites more compatible with the screen readers blind people rely on to access the internet, for false advertising and compensating reviewers without disclosing that it sponsored the reviews. In a proposed order, the FTC would require accessiBe to pay $1 million…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":647908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/gavel-messy-legal.jpg?resize=1200,675","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[77337,153405,79296,5055,76502,153406,80010,70875,151537,153407,99936,70917,153408],"class_list":["post-647907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-accessibe","tag-accessibility","tag-apps","tag-blind","tag-complaint","tag-disabled","tag-ftc","tag-government-policy","tag-order","tag-startup","tag-startups","tag-web-accessibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}