FTC Charges HomeAdvisor with ‘Misleading Tactics,’ ‘Cheating Small Businesses’

The Federal Trade Commission issued an administrative complaint against HomeAdvisor, alleging that the lead-generation company used a “wide range of deceptive and misleading tactics” when selling leads for home improvement projects to small businesses and general contractors.

In the announcement of its charge in mid-March, the FTC alleged HomeAdvisor has issued “false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims” about the quality and source of its leads since 2014.

“Gig economy platforms should not use false claims and phony opportunities to prey on workers and small businesses,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

The FTC complaint alleged HomeAdvisor stated its leads resulted in actual home improvement jobs at rates higher than the company’s own data showed, and that HomeAdvisor misled service providers about the cost of an optional one-month subscription to a software platform the company sold along with its leads.

“While HomeAdvisor states that its leads concern consumers who intend to hire a service provider soon, many of them do not,” the FTC complaint states. 

The quality of HomeAdvisor’s leads have also been questioned in the past. In 2018, a group of contractors sued the company for “overwhelmingly bogus” leads.

HomeAdvisor does business as Angi Leads and HomeAdvisor Powered by Angi.