Softbank-Backed Mental Health Startup Cerebral Under FTC Scrutiny: WSJ

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun investigating mental-health startup Cerebral Inc on its potential engagement in unfair practices related to advertising or marketing of services.
The FTC letter, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, also directed the company to preserve documents.
In particular, the commission seeks information related to the program(s) where Cerebral continues to bill customers a subscription fee until the customer cancels, also called “negative option programs.”
According to the WSJ report, several patients struggled to cancel their accounts and receive refunds for services they didn’t use. Some patients said they had to ask their financial institutions to block Cerebral to stop the charges.
Cerebral reached a $4.8 billion valuation less than two years after it launched its services, raising nearly $500 million in capital from A-list investors, including SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY.
Cerebral said it would cooperate with the FTC and is working to improve its service for patients.
The company said it has recently attempted redesigning the cancellation process.
Image by Okan Caliskan from Pixabay