Last year, the Eleventh Circuit rejected Hi-Tech’s appeal because it was brought over a district court’s contempt finding, not the underlying FTC order. The appeals panel wrote that the AMG Capital decision “did not concern a district court’s ability to enforce its own orders and thus had no bearing on the contempt sanctions at issue.”
In December, Hi-Tech CEO Jared Wheat and Senior Vice President Stephen Smith made one final appeal to the high court, claiming that a circuit split over AMG Capital’s holdings justified a hearing before the justices.
“The court should hold that AMG Capital’s reasoning — that the FTC Act precludes the commission from skipping administrative proceedings to obtain equitable monetary remedies directly in court under Section 13(b) — applies equally in the context of remedying contempt of a Section 13(b) permanent injunction,” the company wrote in its petition.
In its response brief, the commission argued that, as the Eleventh Circuit had already ruled, the AMG Capital decision doesn’t apply to district court judgments for contempt.
