Even though their company, “Superior Affiliate Management” went out of business partially because of this complaint, leaving tons of affiliates without being paid, the owners still have to pay the FTC a bunch of money. Wooohooo, right? While at the time, sending over 30MM spam text messages that claimed that people were going to receive … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put forth a proposed settlement regarding Process America. If accepted by the courts, it will resolve the ongoing allegations against the payment processor, Process America Inc. as well as the owners of the company, Kim Ricketts, Keith Phillips and Craig Rickard. The allegations state that the company used unfair … Read more
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and Apple are five of the largest and most influential companies in the high tech industry. While they may work with each other occasionally, it is almost impossible to get them all to agree on something, but it seems the Governments around the world, and especially the US Government have managed … Read more
“Standard Operating Procedure 303” of the Department of Homeland Security is more commonly known as the “Internet Kill Switch.” Homeland security says that it is in place in order to shut down wireless networks in the event of a known or suspected bomb, which may be detonated using cell connections or through the Internet. The … Read more
A survey of over 1600 affiliates asking about methods, strategies, preferences and (most importantly) the impact of the Affiliate Nexus tax on their businesses. The survey was done for the annual Affiliate Summit AffStat report. The results concerning the impact of the Affiliate Nexus Tax were quite concerning. For this question, Affiliates were asked, “How … Read more
Google has been battling with the European Union for about three years now over antitrust issues related to their search services. Recently, the EU moved a little closer to settling this lengthy legal case. They are taking a settlement proposal to a group of people for approval. What may sound odd to many is which … Read more
Democratic Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts has put in a request to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Google’s recently announced ‘Shared Endorsements’ ads. These are the ads which will automatically pull information from social networks and use images and information about an individual to promote a product. If, for example, you rate a … Read more
Judge Lucy Koh (made semi-famous for asking an Apple lawyer if he was smoking crack during the Apple v Samsung patent case) has released a 43 page order which essentially boils down to allowing the two law suits alleging Google is performing illegal methods of gathering information. The case specifically targets the fact that Google … Read more
ActiveCast Media has filed a lawsuit against Google in US court last week. They are suing Google for a breach of contract. The claim says that Google is unlawfully withholding payments for traffic that ActiveCast sent to Google advertisers according to their contract agreement with Google DoubleClick AdExchange. The online advertising world can be quite … Read more
Google has put forth a new offer to settle an ongoing legal case brought against them through the European Union. Several months ago Google put forth an offer to attempt to settle the case, but the EU’s Competition Commissioner (yes, that’s a real position), Joaquin Almunia did not accept the terms. Google has now put … Read more
Anyone who has participated in, or had any dealings with online poker sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt will remember “Black Friday” in April of 2011 where top online poker sites were shut down, and any money in active accounts was seized. There was an extensive legal battle between the US Government and these … Read more
The Performance Marketing Association is pleased to announce that today it filed an amicus curiae brief (friend of the court) with the US Supreme Court, supporting petitions filed by Amazon and New York, requesting the Court hear their challenges of the New York Affiliate Nexus Tax law. Amazon and Overstock make the case that the … Read more
Following a lengthy investigation and enforcement process, the New York Attorney General announced this week that nineteen companies, including SEO companies and their clientele, have agreed to cease writing false online reviews and will pay penalties ranging from $2,500 to $100,000 as part of a crackdown on the online reputation management industry. The practice of … Read more
The NY Attorney General has settled with 19 SEO companies & small businesses which have agreed to pay more than $350,000 in combined fines. The settlement was the result of a year-long investigation into their marketing practices, including writing and promoting fake reviews of products. Writing reviews is a common practice in marketing, though the … Read more