legal Archives

FTC Testifies Before Senate Commerce Subcommittee About Consumer Protection Efforts

2018-11-29

The Federal Trade Commission recently issued its annual report, providing insight into the agency’s enforcement priorities. The report touches upon fraud, substantiating claims, technological innovation, endorsement guidelines, dietary supplements, disease prevention claims, sponsored content, and privacy and data security. The FTC also recently testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, … Read more

Recent FTC CIDs Focusing Upon Financial Privacy

2018-11-14

An interesting trend has been developing with Federal Trade Commission Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs). Of late, the agency has been focusing on deceptive and unfair trade practices related to consumer privacy and/or data security, including the collection, acquisition, use, disclosure, security, storage, retention and disposition of consumer information by financial institutions and/or their affiliates in violation of … Read more

Canadian Company Receives First GDPR Enforcement Notice

2018-11-05

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation became effective in May 2018. It establishes individual privacy rights and requirements for the collection, processing and storage of personal data. In July 2018, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office issued an enforcement notice to AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd., a Canadian company that used personal data to send targeted … Read more

What Nutra Marketers Must Know About the “Prior Substantiation” Doctrine

2018-09-17

The Federal Trade Commission’s continued commitment to ensuring that marketers possess a reasonable basis for express and implied advertising claims before they are disseminated is consistently reflected by the nature and scope of recent investigations and enforcement actions. Take nutraceuticals, for example. Product efficacy claims based upon “competent and reliable scientific” evidence discovered and relied … Read more

YouTube Continues to See Some Fallout from Advertiser Boycott

2017-07-20

YouTube is continuing to experience some (admittedly, fairly minor) problems related to the ‘boycott’ of their platform for advertising. Major brands, especially P&G, began avoiding YouTube because of privacy concerns and other issues related to being able to ensure their ads were being displayed only in the ways and places that they wanted. The Google … Read more

Website Counter-Sues Federal Trade Commission Right Back

2017-03-292017-03-28

Anyone who doesn’t like the FTC, and there are quite a few of them in the online marketing community, will find this story more than a little interesting. DOTAuthority.com, has announced through their attorneys that they were filing a counterclaim against the FTC in connection to actions taken against the company, and press releases done … Read more

EU Warns Facebook over Promoted Scams

2017-03-19

The European Commission is turning its attention to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. The commission is concerned about a rising number of complaints from people who have fallen victim to scams on social media, and being subjected to terms and conditions that are incompatible with European law. Having already written to the three companies back in … Read more

Alert: Improper Toolbar Disclosures Considered Deceptive Practice by FTC

2017-03-19

In 2012, Upromise, Inc. settled allegations that it violated the FTC Act by offering its users a “TurboSaver Toolbar” – a software download which purportedly “highlighted and identified” partner companies in online search results – without accurately disclosing the scope of its personal data collection practices Specifically, the FTC alleged that extensive information was unknowingly … Read more

Get High Revenue with CBD Hemp Affiliate Program but Is it Legal?

2017-02-13

Medical Marijuana, Inc. (MJNA), apublicly traded cannabis company in the United States, announced today that its subsidiary HempMeds® is announcing a new affiliate program showcasing customer loyalty by allowing them to earn a commission by referring customers to the company. HempMeds is a CBD Oil company, which is causing quite a buzz among medical scientists and … Read more

Why is LeadClick’s CoreLogic vs. FTC So Important to Affiliate Marketing?

2020-02-272016-10-18

LeadClick (now owned by CoreLogic) managed an affiliate marketing network, until it closed its doors in 2011 and moved it’s entire business to CoreLogic. LeanSpa started using LeadClick’s services in 2010, agreeing to pay LeadClick $35-$45 for each consumer that clicked on a link that originated on an affiliates site, and then enrolled into LeanSpa’s … Read more

Legal Problems Plague ANA Transparency Report

2016-06-09

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has teamed up with K2 Intelligence to look at the state of transparency within the ad industry. They performed in-depth analysis of many companies and ads running on digital platforms as well as TV and print. The report was set to be released but major companies WPP and Omnicon … Read more

First Snapchat Speed-Filter Related Criminal Charges Filed

2016-06-05

Filed under “really dumb stuff to do,” a teenage driver in George is facing criminal charges for causing a collision while using the Snapchat “speed filter.” News outlets report a Clayton County judge signed arrest warrants Wednesday for 19-year-old Christal McGee, charging her with felony serious injury by vehicle, among other charges, following the conclusion … Read more

Five Federal Enforcement Actions that Changed Online Marketing

2016-05-082016-04-27

Five Federal Enforcement Actions that Changed the Online Industry In the last five years the marketing industry has been hit with a lot of lawsuits that have drastically changed the industry. Gone are the days of affiliate networks making bad decisions to promote less-than legitl offers – or at least an understanding that doing illegal … Read more

Medical App to Pay FTC $150,000

2016-03-03

The FTC has been trying to crack down on medical related apps over the past year, with quite a bit of success. They have fined and helped shut down several apps that claimed to be able to do things such as detect skin cancer. Several months ago they charged the makers of UltimEyes with deceptive … Read more