FTC final order: HomeAdvisor must pay $7.2 million for deceptive practices

April 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. federal trade Commission said Friday that HomeAdvisor must pay $7.2 million to settle allegations that it used a wide range of deceptive and misleading tactics to sell home improvement project leads to service providers.

Millions of dollars will go to gig workers the FTC found had been deceived by HomeAdvisor. The FTC issued the final order Friday after proposing the order in January.

Affiliated with Angi, formerly Angi's List, the FTC said in a statement that HomeAdvisor since at least mid-2014 had used " false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads the company sells to service providers who are in search of potential customers."

The FTC's final consent order also bars HomeAdvisor from continuing to use the deceptive practices. Those practices, according to the FCC, include falsely saying a product or service is free when they're not.

The order also bans HomeAdvisor from making any representation expressly or by implication "about the rate at which Leads convert into jobs or the expected outcome of Leads."

The FTC order said a condition of the order is that "the facts alleged in the complaint will be taken as true, without further proof" in any commission effort to enforce payment required in the order.

The FTC said in a March administrative complaint that HomeAdvisor's deceptive practices hurt gig workers in the service industry by selling them leads that weren't reliable. According to the FTC HomeAdvisor often told service providers that its leads result in jobs at rates much higher than it can substantiate.

"Gig economy platforms should not use false claims and phony opportunities to prey on workers and small businesses," said the FTC's Samuel Levine, in a March statement.