FTC to Collect $30,000 in COPPA Case
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a $30,000 settlement with Lisa Frank Inc. involving violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.Lisa Frank Inc. manufactures girls' accessories, clothing and school supplies and operates a Web site selling such merchandise. COPPA requires Web sites that collect information from children younger than 13 to obtain parental consent and to post privacy policies.
In its complaint, the FTC charged the operator of www.lisafrank.com with collecting personally identifiable information from children younger than 13 without parental consent. The FTC also alleged that the site did not give notice to parents about privacy practices.
The Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus brought the site to the FTC's attention. The unit had conducted a routine evaluation of the Lisa Frank site.
In addition to the $30,000 settlement reached Tuesday, future data collection by Lisa Frank must comply with COPPA, and it must place a hyperlink to the FTC Web page about COPPA within its privacy policy.
The settlement was the fourth civil penalty case brought by the FTC since COPPA took effect April 21, 2000. In April, girlslife.com, bigmailbox.com and insidetheweb.com settled similar charges with the FTC.
