Predatory Business Practices
Conduct Screen Corporate Misconduct
Multi-level marketing structures, rent-seeking platforms, and business models that exploit customers, distributors, or communities
40 companies currently excluded under this screen
Excluded Companies (40 total)
Showing 38 of 40 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| ABBV | AbbVie Inc. | Off-label promotion and price-fixing — RI AG ($7.5M), MD AG ($38.1M), KY AG ($48.6M) across 2022–2024 for deceptive marketing and anticompetitive price agreements. |
| ACHC | Acadia Healthcare Co Inc | DOJ $19.85M settlement (September 2024) for medically unnecessary psychiatric hospitalizations; NYT investigation documented holding patients against their will to maximize insurance payouts. |
| ADBE | Adobe Inc | FTC enforcement action (June 2024) — FTC sued Adobe and two executives for hiding early termination fees and deliberately obstructing subscription cancellations. |
| ALL | ALLSTATE CORP | Texas Attorney General's investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate's tracking software. |
| AMZN | Amazon.com, Inc. | FTC 2025 $2.5B settlement ($1B penalty + $1.5B refunds): Amazon deployed subscription traps, fake discounts, and deceptive Prime cancellation flows targeting consumers |
| APO | APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT INC CLASS | Owns LifePoint Health: documented severe cuts to hospital services, poor quality ratings, and healthcare worker understaffing across acquired regional hospitals. Extracts value from essential communit... |
| BAC | Bank of America | CFPB/OCC $250M penalty (2023) — Bank of America illegally charged junk fees, withheld credit card rewards, and opened fake accounts without customer consent. |
| BKD | Brookdale Senior Living Inc. | California Attorney General $3.25 million enforcement settlement (March 2022) for systemic consumer deception. Brookdale deliberately defrauded CMS to artificially inflate facility safety "star rating... |
| BKNG | Booking Holdings Inc. | Texas AG $9.5M consumer protection settlement (2025) — deceptive pricing practices including hidden fees and misleading discount claims. |
| BMY | Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | Senate HELP Committee investigation (June 2024): Bristol-Myers Squibb used REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) safety program as anticompetitive tool to block generic entry for Revlimid (le... |
| CG | CARLYLE GROUP INC | Acquired manufactured home communities and implemented aggressive lot rent hikes trapping low-income residents who cannot move their homes; documented by Private Equity Stakeholder Project as a predat... |
| CLX | Clorox Company (The) | Clorox agreed to pay $14.15M civil penalty to CPSC for knowingly failing to report bacterial contamination (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) in Pine-Sol Scented Multi-Surface Cleaning Products. Contamination d... |
| CVNA | CARVANA CO | The FTC banned Carvana from deceiving consumers about vehicle prices and financing terms, requiring the company to pay $1 million in penalties and implement a comprehensive compliance program. |
| DE | Deere & Co. | Right-to-repair monopolization — FTC and state AGs sued Deere (Jan 2025) for anticompetitive tactics blocking farmers from repairing their own equipment, forcing dealer-only service at inflated cost. ... |
| DVA | DAVITA INC | The U.S. Department of Justice sued DaVita Inc. in 2021 to block its proposed $4.3 billion acquisition of dialysis clinics from University of Utah Health, alleging the deal would reduce competition an... |
| EQH | Equitable Holdings | Targeted K-12 public school teachers with EQUI-VEST variable annuities while systematically hiding up to 1.49% mortality/expense fees and 2.26% portfolio operating fees — showing "$0.00 in fees" on qu... |
| ESS | ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST INC | Essex Property Trust spent $60.1M since 2018 to defeat California rent control ballot measures (Props 10, 21, 33). Implicated in DOJ RealPage algorithmic pricing investigation. 2016 Fremont, CA tenant... |
| FA | First Advantage Corp | First Advantage: FCRA violations for inaccurate background check reports harming job seekers; November 2024 data breach exposing sensitive consumer data |
| GDDY | GODADDY INC | FTC enforcement action January 2025: GoDaddy charged with deceiving customers about security practices, failing to implement adequate security measures while marketing services as secure |
| HCA | HCA HEALTHCARE INC | HCA Healthcare Inc. agreed to pay $16 million to resolve allegations it paid kickbacks to physicians to induce referrals, violating the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute. |
| HSIC | HENRY SCHEIN INC | Henry Schein agreed to pay $1.1 million for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law by providing improper remuneration to customers in the form of points redeemable for products and servi... |
| IDCC | Interdigital | InterDigital: anticompetitive abuse of standard-essential patents (SEP) — China court ruled against IDCC for SEP licensing practices, ordered $3.2M in damages (2013 Shenzhen Intermediate People's Cour... |
| INMD | INMODE LTD | Credible, consolidated securities and consumer class action (filed February 2024, US District Court C.D. California, 2:24-cv-01219) alleging systemic evasion of FDA injury reporting and off-label mark... |
| IQV | IQVIA Holdings Inc | On July 17, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block IQVIA Holdings Inc. from acquiring Propel Media, Inc., alleging the deal would give IQVIA a dominant position in programmatic advertising f... |
| KKR | KKR AND CO INC | Envision Healthcare (KKR portfolio): systemic surprise medical billing from emergency physicians. BrightSpring (KKR portfolio): Senate investigation documented dangerous understaffing and systemic neg... |
| KVUE | KENVUE INC | Texas sued Tylenol maker Kenvue, alleging it deceived pregnant women about risks associated with autism by omitting warnings on its product labels. |
| META | Meta Platforms, Inc. | As of March 2026, Facebook is in the midst of a landmark jury trial facing allegations that it intentionally generates billions in revenue from illegal and fraudulent advertisements. A November 2025 l... |
| MOH | MOLINA HEALTHCARE INC | Molina Healthcare Inc. agreed to pay over $5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to improper billing for Medicaid services in Ohio. |
| MSGE | Madison Square Garden Entertainment | Deployed facial recognition system to identify and eject attorneys from law firms in active litigation against MSGE — a retaliatory surveillance application in commercial public venues targeting thous... |
| MTCH | Match Group | Guardian investigation (December 2025) and lawsuit alleging Match Group (Tinder/Hinge) failed to protect users from sexual predators and trafficking. Pattern of inadequate safety measures enabling har... |
| NCLH | Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. | Norwegian Cruise Line actively markets captive dolphin and sea lion interaction excursions in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Cozumel) while Mexican law has changed to prohibit certain forms of human-cetacea... |
| NVR | NVR INC | NVR is currently a defendant in a class-action lawsuit (Butakis v. NVR Inc., 2023) alleging the fraudulent misrepresentation of "Special Assessments" to home buyers. The complaint asserts that NVR and... |
| PRI | Primerica | MLM sales structure incentivizes unsuitable switching of working-class clients into high-fee variable annuities (1.30% M&E + up to 2.26% sub-account expenses + 5.75% dealer commission + 8.5% surrender... |
| STRA | Strategic Education, Inc. | FTC $43.5M deceptive advertising order (Aug 2024) — ordered Strategic Education to pay for luring students with false job placement rates and salary claims. CFPB enforcement action also on record. |
| UNH | UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC | The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block UnitedHealth Group's $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare, alleging the deal would give UnitedHealth control over a critical healthcare data cleari... |
| VZ | Verizon Communications Inc. | Class actions for billing rates above advertised prices via hidden "administrative charges"; deceptive "free phone" promotions resulting in hundreds of dollars in customer charges; $10M multi-state AG... |
| ZG | Zillow Group Inc | Zillow: antitrust lawsuits alleging RESPA violations and steering home buyers to Zillow-owned mortgage products, suppressing competition among lenders — awaiting CIO review |
| ZI | ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. | ZoomInfo settled class action for $29.5M for commercializing individuals' names, likenesses, and professional identities without consent for marketing purposes |
The Naughty List
A digest of changes to our exclusion list — new additions, removals, and the evidence behind them. We review the list continuously as new evidence surfaces.
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