AI Enforcement Actions: Regulatory Penalties and Settlements
Completed and pending enforcement actions involving AI systems, showing how regulators are applying existing and new law.
FTC Enforcement on AI (Section 5 of the FTC Act)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces US consumer protection law against companies that make deceptive claims about AI or use AI in unfair ways. It relies on Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans unfair or deceptive practices, plus trade rules on fake reviews and impersonation. There is no exemption for AI. Any company selling AI products or using AI with US consumers is in scope.
United States v. Heppner (S.D.N.Y. 2026): AI Chatbot Documents Not Privileged
In United States v. Heppner, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York ruled in February 2026 that 31 documents a criminal defendant created with Anthropic's Claude were not privileged. Heppner, former CEO of Beneficient and chairman of GWG Holdings, had used consumer Claude on his own, not at his lawyers' direction.