After more than a half-decade of litigation, a federal judge in Georgia has sided in favor of the remaining defendants, rejecting the Federal Trade Commission’s pursuit of a permanent injunction that would have effectively banned them from marketing and selling products over the internet and via the telephone.

District Judge William M. Ray II of the Northern District of Georgia entered a March 22 judgment in favor of William R. Wilson and Dale Paul Cleveland, the owners of EDP Entities discount club, as well as James McCarter and Earl Robinson, concluding the FTC failed to prove that they are reasonably likely to violate any law the FTC has jurisdiction to enforce.