The US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Genesis, an influential Ukrainian product IT company, accusing it of deceiving consumers through hidden withdrawals. The regulator announced a temporary suspension of the activities of some companies affiliated with Genesis in the US.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, several companies associated with Genesis may be involved in schemes that include automatic subscription renewals without consumer consent and obstructing their cancellation. This group includes 15 legal entities, most of which are registered in Cyprus and Delaware.
Among the individuals mentioned are the founders of Genesis, Volodymyr Mnogoletniy and Vasyl Ulyanov, as well as other key figures of the company. The regulator claims that through these companies, consumers were provided subscriptions to apps for fitness, self-help, PDF editing, fashion consulting, and horoscopes, resulting in revenues of nearly $250 million from early 2023 to mid-2025.
The regulator emphasizes that violations of US consumer protection law by Genesis are not unique: similar lawsuits have previously been filed against other large companies, such as Amazon Prime, Adobe, and Uber One.
At the same time, Genesis is one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies with a significant impact both locally and internationally. Founded in 2008, it has grown into a large ecosystem that includes 25 businesses, some of which have become spinoffs, such as Headway Inc, BetterMe, and Quarks.
