71.  FTC v. TradeNet Marketing, Inc., Civil Action No. 99-944-CIV-T-24B (M.D. Fla. stipulated judgements filed April 21, 1999)

Defendants: L.W. Cooper and TradeNet Marketing, Erwin Richard Annau and Top Marketing Business Consulting, and Alberto Guerrero

Type:  Deceptive Laundry Products

According to the FTC, the defendants falsely touted "The Laundry Solution" and "The SuperGlobe" as effective substitutes for laundry detergents. They allegedly claimed that these liquid-filled plastic balls would clean laundry without polluting the earth's waterways by emitting a negative charge or by means of "structured water" or "IE crystals."

In three separate agreements reached with the defendants, the defendants are barred from claiming their laundry balls or any similar product cleans as well as conventional laundry detergent. The agreements also required the defendants to pay $155,000 in satisfaction of monetary judgments. These funds are to be divided equally among the FTC and eleven states that participated in this action: Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and Oklahoma.