Care.com is one of the many "middleman" service on the internet. It lines up caregivers with consumers looking for child and older adult care. But the Federal Trade Commission says the company deceives both caregivers looking for work and families looking for caregivers.
The company has agreed to a settlement that will require it to turn over $8.5 million to be paid as refunds to consumers harmed by its practices, as well as requiring the company to back up the earnings claims it makes and be honest about the number of jobs available on its site.
“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.”
The FTC's complaint alleged that Care’s marketing messages about both the number of jobs available on their site and the amount workers could expect to be paid were deceptive.
In an unsigned statement on its website, the company denied the charges.
"Though we were fully prepared to litigate for the next several years if necessary and confident in our position, we decided to enter into an agreement with the FTC to resolve this matter now and keep our focus on helping our customers," it said.
"This settlement is in no way a validation of the FTC’s claims. In fact, the settlement requires no material change in how Care.com serves those who use its platform," the company insisted.
Care provides an online platform where people looking to hire workers for jobs like child and older adult care, care for people with special needs, and pet sitting can post jobs and where people looking for such work can contact potential employers. In order to contact job posters or job seekers, users are required to purchase an auto-renewing paid subscription.
Misleading messages
According to the complaint, Care’s advertising entices consumers to buy subscriptions in order to apply for jobs. The ads vastly overstate the number of jobs available on the platform and make unsubstantiated claims about how much consumers could expect to earn through these jobs, the charges allege.
Care’s advertising frequently has included the number of jobs available on its platform—a number that is deceptively inflated by including jobs for which there is little to no chance a job seeker could be hired, the FTC said. Since at least 2019, Care has advertised millions of these jobs in an effort to entice care providers to pay for subscriptions to its platform, according to the complaint.
Care’s platform allows those looking for workers to join the site for free. When they answer a questionnaire, Care creates a job listing on its platform, but the only way for a job poster to see a worker’s job application is if both people have paid memberships; if the poster hasn’t purchased a paid membership, then there is no way they can hire someone who applies for their job.
The lawsuit points to numerous complaints from consumers who expressed frustration at the number of jobs they applied for without hearing anything back.
Earnings exaggerated
In addition to the inflated job claims, the complaint also charges that Care deceived users about how much money consumers can earn when they get a job on the platform. In advertisements and landing pages, Care has touted hourly as well as weekly earnings totals that are designed to entice consumers into paying for subscriptions despite having little to no data to back up such earnings claims, according to the complaint.
The complaint cites one 2021 Care ad campaign on a third-party site saying “Childcare jobs from $18/hr,” while at the same time saying on its own website that, “On average, the national pay rate for babysitting jobs” and “The average rate for babysitters on Care.com” was between $13 and $14.25 per hour.
According to the complaint, Care has not actually tracked earnings for jobs found on its platform and has little to no credible information to back up its earning claims in its advertising and marketing.
Cancellation complications
The complaint also alleges that Care has used a number of unlawful tactics, sometimes referred to as dark patterns, to prevent consumers – both job posters and job seekers – from being able to cancel their subscriptions.
When consumers try to cancel Care subscriptions, they must click through a number of unrelated links to find information about how to cancel. According to the lawsuit, consumers regularly complained about difficulties in finding the cancellation options, with many resorting to searching online for instructions on how to cancel.
Once consumers find their way to the cancellation “flow” for their paid subscription, they face multiple steps designed to impede them from successfully cancelling. In some cases, consumers run into multi-page questionnaires, confusing language, warnings about the effects of cancellation, and offers to buy other paid memberships before finally being able to successfully cancel.