LeadClick Media who closed their doors in 2011 and its parent company, CoreLogic, Inc (NYSE: CLGX) have been ordered to turn over $16 million in revenue that they received through a weight-loss marketing scam. The marketing that was used was determined to be deceptive by the US district courts. The court granted the FTC’s request … Read more
So called ‘revenge porn’ sites are fairly popular today, sadly. They offer a place where upset ex-husbands, boyfriends (mostly, though there are some that allow male images and videos) can upload pictures and videos of their former partners where the rest of the world can see them. This, of course, is very upsetting to the … Read more
As far as I remember off shore scammers have created fake companies in order to scam those into the US into doing business with them. In the Lead Generation space, it seems there are a growing amount of companies that buy old leads and resell them as new, or use cheap labor to fill out … Read more
The FTC completed an investigation back in 2013 into Google related to anti-trust accusations. The report suggests that Google actually worked to intentionally keep competitors to their online shopping site off of the top search results. They may have also deliberately blacklisted other shopping sites, even though they claim that they did not do this. … Read more
A federal court has recently sided with the FTC, stating that advertisers should be held accountable for any deceptive or otherwise illegal acts and practices that are performed by affiliate marketers. This is related to a case involving LeadClick Media, INC, which is a well-known affiliate marketing network. They were ordered to return $11.9 million … Read more
It has been a while since we have heard much about the so called ‘Internet Sales Tax’ or more accurately, the Marketplace Fairness Act. It passed the Senate back in 2013, but was never taken up by the Republican controlled House (because it had little to no chance of passing). The bill would give states … Read more
Four years ago a French teacher decided to post a famous painting on his Facebook account. It was a painting that had been featured in the very prestigious Musee d’Orsay art museum, among other places. The painting he posted an image of was the “L’Origine du Monde” which translates to, “The Origin of the World.” … Read more
In October 2014, the California Court of Appeal ruled in a putative class action, Rosolowski et al. v. Guthy-Renker LLC, that a commercial email header does not violate California’s anti-SPAM statute “merely because it does not identify the official name of the entity which sent the email, or merely because it does not identify an … Read more
In a case regarding what has been called one of the largest reported data breaches in US history, the FBI has recently unsealed their indictments against Viet Quoc Nguyen and Giang Hoang Vu, both of whom are citizens of Vietnam. They are charged with breaking laws related to a major data breach of e-mail service … Read more
On February 26, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals held that a “from” e-mail address leading to an unmonitored mailbox was not false or misleading information about the origin or transmission path of the e-mail (Walton v. Network Solutions, Md. Ct. Spec. App., No. 1317, 2/26/15). Here, the plaintiff alleged Network Solutions Inc. violated the Maryland Commercial Electronic … Read more
An automobile shipment broker based in Georgia, has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that will halt the company’s allegedly deceptive practice of touting online customer reviews, while failing to disclose that the reviewers were compensated with discounts and incentives. The broker’s website represented that the company had “more highly ranked ratings and reviews than … Read more
Apple, along with several other major tech firms, was sued in a Texas federal court for patent infringement by Smartflash LLC. Smartfish is a well known patent troll that has made millions in the past with this type of lawsuit. This one, however, is particularly big. It is related to the way iTunes handled data … Read more
In October of 2014, I blogged about the Roslowski et al. v. Guthy-Renker LLC decision pertaining to California Business & Professions Code §17529.5(a)(2) and (3), and the issue of identifying the sender in the body of commercial email. The decision can be found, here. On February 11, 2015, the California Supreme Court denied the request … Read more
On February 11, 2015, the United States District Court, Central District of California granted Clickbooth’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, ruling that the claims asserted by Essociate are patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and are therefore invalid. A copy of the motion can be seen, below. Title 35 of the U.S. Code … Read more