Federal regulators have accused eCommerce infrastructure platform Click Profit of misleading its customers.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Tuesday (March 18) that it had obtained a court order halting Click Profit’s operations, alleging that the company had taken at least $14 million from consumers with false promises that they could make big profits via online sales.

According to the commission’s complaint, Click Profit tricked customers by promising they could make large amounts of “passive income” using a proprietary system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to sell goods through online platforms like Amazon, Walmart and TikTok.

The FTC said the company also falsely claimed to have partnerships with the likes of Nike and Disney to convince customers to turn over tens of thousands of dollars each.

“Click Profit misled consumers by falsely promising them guaranteed passive income using cutting-edge AI technology and exclusive brand partnerships,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a news release.

“Their deception caused individual consumers to lose tens of thousands of dollars while the Click Profit’s operators enriched themselves. The FTC is working to hold the defendants accountable and secure redress for their victims, who have collectively lost millions of dollars.”

PYMNTS has contacted Click Profit for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. Visitors to the company website are greeted with this message. “Own your own Amazon Store…This is NOT a get rich quick scheme. If you’re looking for an overnight success, this is NOT for you!”

But while the company is warning potential customers against overnight success, the FTC said that more than 20% of Click Profit’s stores earn no money at all. Stores often take months to open, and when they do, 95% of them are either shut down or suspended by Amazon.

“In instances where consumers’ stores begin to generate revenue, Click Profit pressures the consumers into using that revenue to buy additional inventory for their stores,” the FTC said.

In other recent FTC news, the commission said last week that its law enforcement actions had yielded $337.3 million in refunds to consumers in 2024.

That total included $280.7 million in refunds directly from the FTC, with the rest being returned to consumers by the defendants or other federal agencies administering the refund programs. The total was up from the $324 million in lawsuit-related refunds issued to consumers in 2023.

“Getting money back for people across the country is a top priority for the FTC,” Mufarrige said in a news release last week. “We will relentlessly pursue refunds for Americans who lost money to unlawful practices.”