A federal court has temporarily shut down what the US Federal Trade Commission describes as a sprawling enterprise of deceptive subscription apps, freezing the operations of 15 corporations and eight individuals accused of charging consumers without permission and making cancellation deliberately hard.
The order, granted at the agency’s request, came alongside a complaint filed on 17 June in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
At the centre sits Genesis Tech, which the FTC alleges operated as a single common enterprise behind a portfolio of unrelated-looking products. The roster reads like a tour of the app stores’ long tail: the fitness and nutrition apps MadMuscles, Harna, and Unimeal; the PDF editors PDF Guru and PDF Master; a fashion-advice app called Lumi; the self-help brand Wisey, which the agency says marketed courses claiming to diagnose and treat ADHD symptoms; and Nebula, a horoscope and psychic-chat app.
The complaint names founder-CEOs Vladimir Mnogoletny and Vasily Ulianov, along with six other co-defendants.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The structure is the part the FTC lingers on. According to the complaint, Genesis Tech ran through a chain of affiliates incorporated in Cyprus and operating in Ukraine, which marketed the apps to American users while routing payment processing through counterpart companies registered in Delaware.
