Company › Research

Proof of market.

Every Shitely product was validated at scale by a market leader, then priced by a regulator. These are the receipts.

39records
14authorities and courts
20Shitely products named

Pricing and fees

Fees, reference prices and demand pricing

Fees added after the headline price, reductions measured against a chosen price, and prices that rise with demand.

8 records

US FTC, December 2025 · our product: FeeDrip

Instacart

$60m

The FTC said Instacart advertised free delivery while mandatory service fees added up to 15% to the order.

Source

US FTC and Illinois, December 2024 · our product: FeeDrip

Grubhub

$140m

The FTC said Grubhub advertised low delivery prices, then added "service" fees that were delivery fees under another name. Judgment partly suspended for inability to pay.

Source

US FTC, December 2024 · our product: FeeDrip

Live-event tickets and short-term lodging

Trade rule

Sellers must show the total price, including every mandatory fee, in any advertised price. In force since 12 May 2025.

Source

UK CMA, April 2026 · our product: FeeDrip

AA Driving School and BSM

£4.2m

The CMA found a mandatory £3 booking fee was left out of upfront prices for more than 80,000 learners. The AA admitted the breach and is refunding £760k.

Source

UK CMA, November 2025 · our product: Cart Assist

StubHub, viagogo, Wayfair, Gold's Gym and four others

8 investigations

The first consumer cases under the DMCC Act: drip pricing, countdown sales that may not end when stated, and add-ons ticked by default.

Source

US FTC and 7 states, September 2025 (pending) · our product: FeeDrip

Live Nation and Ticketmaster

Court case

The FTC alleges bait-and-switch pricing that showed buyers lower prices than they paid. The court refused to dismiss the case in September 2026.

Source

UK CMA, September 2025 · our product: Personal Pricing

Ticketmaster (Oasis tour)

Undertakings

Standing tickets sold out at a lower price and the rest went on sale much higher. Ticketmaster agreed to give 24 hours' notice of tiered pricing, with no admission.

Source

Court of Justice of the EU, September 2024 · our product: WasPrice™

Aldi Süd

Court ruling

An advertised price reduction must be measured against the lowest price the trader charged in the previous 30 days.

Source

Subscriptions

Sign-up, renewal and cancellation

Subscriptions that start in one click and end in several screens, a phone call or a retention agent.

9 records

US FTC, September 2025 · our product: Retain

Amazon Prime

$2.5bn

The FTC said Amazon signed people up to Prime without clear consent and made cancelling hard. Amazon settled: a $1bn civil penalty and $1.5bn in refunds.

Source

US DOJ and FTC, March 2026 · our product: Retain

Adobe

$150m

The government alleged Adobe hid an early termination fee in fine print and made cancelling difficult. Adobe denies it. The proposed order awaits the court.

Source

US FTC, 21 states and DC, December 2025 (pending) · our product: Retain

Uber

Court case

The FTC alleges Uber charged for Uber One without consent, and that cancelling could take up to 23 screens and 32 actions.

Source

US FTC, November 2022 · our product: Retain

Vonage

$100m

The FTC said customers could only cancel through a live retention agent, and that some were billed after they asked to leave.

Source

US FTC, August 2025 · our product: Retain

Match Group

$14m

The FTC alleged Match hid conditions behind a "six-month guarantee", locked out users who disputed charges and made cancelling hard. Settled without admission.

Source

US FTC, September 2020 · our product: Retain

ABCmouse (Age of Learning)

$10m

The FTC alleged memberships renewed automatically without clear disclosure and were hard to cancel, despite a promise of "Easy Cancellation".

Source

US FTC, September 2025 · our product: Retain

Chegg

$7.5m

The FTC alleged Chegg's cancellation process was deceptive. The order requires a simple way to cancel and refunds.

Source

US FTC and DOJ, April 2024 · our product: Retain

Cerebral

$7m

The FTC alleged Cerebral promised "cancel anytime" but made cancelling hard, and shared the health data of 3.2 million users for advertising.

Source

US FTC, August 2025 (pending) · our product: Retain

LA Fitness

Court case

The FTC alleges the gym chain made cancelling a membership exceedingly difficult.

Source

Persuasive design

Urgency, popularity, reviews and defaults

Countdown timers, scarcity claims, review handling, invitations and defaults, as found by courts and regulators.

9 records

UK CMA, 2026 · our product: UrgencyEngine

Emma Sleep

Court order

After the CMA acted on misleading countdown timers and discounts, a court order banned Emma from showing a countdown when a similar sale follows within 28 days.

Source

UK CMA, February 2019 · our product: Demand Signals

Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, ebookers, Agoda and trivago

6 sites

They gave the CMA commitments to stop false scarcity and popularity claims, and to stop showing sold-out hotels to create pressure.

Source

US FTC, December 2022 · our product: Smart Close

Fortnite (Epic Games)

$245m

The FTC said Fortnite's button layout made players buy things by mistake, and that Epic locked the accounts of people who disputed the charges.

Source

European Commission, December 2025 · our product: LivePulse

X

€120m

The first Digital Services Act decision. The Commission found the paid "verified" checkmark deceives users, which breaches the ban on deceptive interface design. X can appeal.

Source

US FTC, June 2023 · our product: SpinToWin™

Publishers Clearing House

$18.5m

The FTC alleged design that made people think a purchase was needed to enter its sweepstakes or would improve their odds, and hidden shipping fees.

Source

US FTC, January 2022 · our product: Review Requests

Fashion Nova

$4.2m

The FTC alleged Fashion Nova held back hundreds of thousands of reviews under four stars from 2015 to 2019. The first FTC review-suppression case.

Source

US FTC, August 2024 · our product: LivePulse

Consumer reviews and testimonials

Trade rule

Buying or selling reviews from people who do not exist or never used the product, including AI-generated ones, is banned, as are review suppression and bought followers or views. In force since October 2024.

Source

US District Court, N.D. California, February 2016 · our product: Invite Graph

LinkedIn (Perkins v LinkedIn)

$13m

The court found members agreed to the first "Add Connections" invitation but not to the two reminder emails sent after it. Class settlement approved.

Source

European Commission, March 2013 · our product: Default Status

Microsoft

€561m

Microsoft did not show the browser choice screen on Windows 7 SP1 for 14 months, so 15 million EU users never saw it.

Source

Marketplaces

Ranking, parity and self-preferencing

How platforms charge sellers for position, keep prices the same everywhere and place their own products first.

7 records

UK CMA, February 2019 · our product: Promote

Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, ebookers, Agoda and trivago

6 sites

Commitments to say clearly when commission affects where a hotel is ranked, and to stop pressure selling and misleading discounts.

Source

Federal Court of Australia, April 2022 · our product: Promote

trivago

AU$44.7m

The court found trivago's top-of-page offers were weighted towards the booking sites that paid it the most per click, not the cheapest rate.

Source

Spain CNMC, July 2024 · our product: FeeDrip

Booking.com

€413m

Fined for abusing its position with hotels, including clauses stopping them offering lower prices on their own websites. Booking is appealing.

Source

Court of Justice of the EU, September 2024 · our product: FeeDrip

Booking.com

Parity clauses

The court ruled that clauses forcing hotels to match Booking's prices elsewhere cannot in principle be treated as necessary to its service.

Source

US FTC, September 2023 (pending) · our product: Promote

Amazon

17 states joined

The FTC alleges Amazon punishes sellers who offer lower prices elsewhere, and deliberately increases "junk ads that worsen search quality". Amazon denies the claims.

Source

UK CMA, November 2023 · our product: Own Brand

Amazon

Commitments

Amazon committed to "guarantee all product offers are treated equally" for the Buy Box, and not to use rival sellers' data.

Source

European Commission, June 2017 (upheld 2024) · our product: Own Brand

Google

€2.42bn

Fined for giving its own comparison-shopping service the best placement in its search results. The EU's top court upheld the fine in September 2024.

Source
$68.6bnAmazon advertising revenue, 2025 (Amazon 10-K: "sponsored ads, display, and video advertising")

AI

Assistants and generated content

Who answers for what a chatbot says, and for reviews a model wrote.

2 records

BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, February 2024 · our product: Gary

Air Canada (Moffatt)

CA$812

The airline was liable after its website chatbot gave wrong advice on bereavement fares. The tribunal rejected the argument that the chatbot was responsible for itself.

Source

US FTC, September 2024 · our product: Studio

Rytr

Consent order

The FTC alleged Rytr's tool let users generate unlimited reviews with no basis in any real experience. The FTC set the order aside in December 2025.

Source