Forum Discussion

fluke's avatar
fluke
Roku Guru
2 years ago

Roku helping promote Intuit TurboTax "Free" Edition despite FTC complaint/case?

There is plenty of hidden gems to be found on The Roku Channel.  Also, I understand all that great content needs to be licensed and isn't given to Roku for free.  Normally I am grateful to the sponsors/advertisers to The Roku Channel.  However, there should be some sort of line that Roku won't cross when it comes to advertising such as deceptive companies/products.

It was surprising to find on the Roku Home screen that Roku was advertising "Roku Channels Girls Night In presented by Intuit."  The first ad to pop up when play the content was for Intuit TurboTax "Free" Edition which is state to be "100% free taxes."

ProPublica had published several articles explaining how TurboTax "Free" Edition is *NOT* be 100% free.

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a pending case about this which can be found here:
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/192-3119-intuit-inc-matter-turbotax 

In that case summary they refer to the TurboTax advertisements pitching "free" tax filing as:
deceiving, bogus, deceptive and mislead

The IRS estimates that 70% could use an IRS Free File partner to actually file for free.  Intuit estimates only 37% of people that use so-called "Free" edition will actually be able to complete filing for free.  That sounds to me like it only covers about half the situations that IRS Free File allows for doing taxes for free.

Why isn't Roku working with the IRS or one of the IRS Free File partners for sponsoring The Roku Channels content instead?

Full disclosure: I do not work for the IRS or any IRS Free File partner.

 

9 Replies

  • atc98092's avatar
    atc98092
    Community Streaming Expert
    2 years ago

    They probably signed the contract for the ads before the news broke about the FTC complaint. More than likely they don't have a legal reason/excuse to stop playing the ads. 

    • fluke's avatar
      fluke
      Roku Guru
      2 years ago

       

      atc98092 wrote:

      They probably signed the contract for the ads before the news broke about the FTC complaint. More than likely they don't have a legal reason/excuse to stop playing the ads.

      Before the FTC 237-page opinion in Sept 2023?

      https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/09/nine-takeaways-initial-decision-intuit-turbotax-action

      I don't expect them to break the contract and stop playing the ads at this point.  I was hoping in the future they could be a little more careful with what they associated with the Roku brand name.  When there is multiple articles going back to 2019 about the "Free" edition of a product be a "trick" or "trap" then maybe please move on to the next potential sponsor?  Someone a little less scam-ish next time?

      I don't mind ads which bring value.  But misleading ads do the exact opposite.  There are some websites, such as CNET, in which I just ignore the ads completely because they have gone out of their way to make it clear they do zero vetting/responsibility for the quality of the claims in the ads.  It is much easier to loose credibility for *ALL* the ads you play than it is to earn consumer trust.

      • atc98092's avatar
        atc98092
        Community Streaming Expert
        2 years ago

        Which is why I do my best to ignore all ads. I rarely watch broadcast TV, and if I do I mute every commercial. Everything I record OTA is edited to remove ads. I use an ad blocking app for YouTube and generally ignore any ad I see on web sites. I use add-ins in my browser to block videos from playing automatically (doesn't catch them all, but almost). I try to avoid the channels on my Rokus that run ads, and when I do I again mute the sound so I don't listen to them. 

        I realize ads pay for the vast majority of Internet content in one way or another. But I can try to eliminate my viewing/seeing them to the extent practical. As far as TurboTax, I've used it for almost 20 years and don't plan on stopping because of this complaint. But then any ads for it I also tend to ignore.