Penalty Amount
$5,200
The New Jersey Attorney General and FTC settled with app developer Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger for distributing the Prized app that contained malware to mine cryptocurrency without user consent. The settlement prohibits such activities, requires record-keeping for 20 years, and imposes a $5,200 penalty with an additional $44,800 suspended.
Defendants are prohibited from marketing or selling malware products and from making misrepresentations in software sales. They must provide financial, personnel, and other records to authorities for 20 years and pay $5,200, with an additional $44,800 suspended pending compliance.
In-house legal teams should review vendor agreements with app developers and third-party distributors (e.g., Google Play, Amazon Appstore), as well as customer-facing Terms of Service and End User License Agreements (EULAs). Key clauses to scrutinize include explicit prohibitions against malware or unauthorized software, requirements for affirmative user consent before executing resource-intensive processes (like cryptocurrency mining), warranties related to device performance and data usage, and compliance obligations with major app store policies. Contracts may need amendments to ban covert cryptocurrency mining, mandate transparent disclosure of battery/data impacts, and incorporate robust audit and record-keeping provisions to enforce compliance, mirroring the 20-year reporting requirement in this settlement.
Entity
Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger
Also known as: Equiliv Investments
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://www.njoag.gov/new-jersey-division-of-consumer-affairs-federal-trade-commission-reach-settlement-with-developer-of-mobile-app-that-allegedly-hacked-new-jersey-smartphones-with-harmful-malware-2/
New Jersey Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://www.njoag.gov/about/divisions-and-offices/division-of-consumer-affairs/
"the defendants in this matter, Ohio-based app developer Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger"
"must pay $5,200 to reimburse the State of New Jersey’s investigative and legal costs."
"violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act and New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act."
"consumers who downloaded Prized onto their devices were also unwittingly downloading malicious software that infected their devices and caused them to “mine” for virtual currencies"
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