As we enter the new year, agencies and brands have no doubt heard lots of talk about the impending March 31, 2013 expiration of the SAG commercials contract, AFTRA commercials contract and AFTRA radio contract, and the potential for a strike. What are the implications of this deadline, and what can advertisers do now to prepare? Read more.
January 15, 2013
Delta Airlines was not first in flight but it did achieve a different first last month when the California Attorney General sued the company for alleged violations of a never-before-litigated state privacy law, the California Online Privacy Protection Act. Read more.
January 14, 2013
California's Attorney General recently released a set of official privacy recommendations for consideration by mobile app developers, mobile ad networks and related industry players. Read more.
January 10, 2013
On December 10th, the Federal Trade Commission issued a staff report, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade" -- a follow-up to an earlier staff report, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing." The new staff report included results of a survey of children's mobile "apps" available in Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market. Read more.
January 7, 2013
In December, the FTC released its long-awaited update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA, originally written in 1998, covers information collected online from Children under the age of 13. The statute applies to digital applications and websites that are directed toward children or that knowingly collect personal information from children. The update contains important changes for advertisers, agencies, and other business operators. The changes go into effect on July 1, 2013. Here's a rundown of what you need to know. Read more.
January 3, 2013
Over the past few days and weeks the press has spilled a lot of ink about Facebook's, and its newly acquired company, Instagram's, revised privacy, advertising and other policies. Whether or not the recent policy changes are significant is yet to be determined, but what is clear is that the public is actually paying attention and that the changes may affect how advertisers can use these platforms. Read more.
December 22, 2012
The Federal Communications Commission ruled that sending a one-time text message to confirm a consumer's request that no further text messages be sent does not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Read more.
December 3, 2012
Less than three months after a U.S. District Court judge rejected a proposed $8.5 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against Groupon, LivingSocial proposes a $4.5 million dollar settlement to a set of class action plaintiffs and a nation of class action members. Read more.
November 29, 2012
In response to a challenge by the International Business Machines Corporation, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus reviewed print advertisements produced by Oracle Corporation stating its Exadata server is "5x Faster Than IBM ... Or you win $10,000,000." The NAD went on to state that Oracle was responsible for substantiating this "5x Faster claim." Read more.
November 26, 2012
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") was enacted by Congress in 1977 in response to "revelations of widespread global corruption", including allegations that numerous U.S. companies had paid hundreds of millions of dollars to bribe foreign government officials to obtain or retain overseas business. The FCPA includes substantial criminal penalties for both businesses and individuals found to have made prohibited payments, and also gives both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to pursue civil enforcement actions. Read more.
November 21, 2012
The New York Attorney General recently issued guidelines in cause marketing promotion. In issuing these new guidelines the New York Attorney General cites the need to promote transparency in the billion-dollar-a-year industry of cause marketing. Read more.
November 19, 2012
Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District court of New York recently decided that Texas Hold 'Em poker is a game of skill and therefore not gambling under federal law. This is the first time a federal court has determined that poker is not gambling under the "Illegal Gambling Business Act". The government intends to appeal the decision. Read more.
November 9, 2012
In rejecting a right of publicity claim by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which claims to control the rights to Albert Einstein, a California federal court has ruled that the common law right of publicity under New Jersey law has a maximum post-mortem duration of 50 years. Read more.
October 23, 2012
The FTC recently released guidelines entitled "Marketing Your Mobile App: Get It Right from the Start". The guidelines provide valuable do's and don'ts for companies and individuals creating mobile applications. The guideline was divided into two sections, "Truthful Advertising" and "Privacy". Here's a rundown of what you need to know. Read more.
October 4, 2012
As fashion week begins in New York, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an important ruling that may help fashion creators in their efforts to obtain intellectual property protection for fashion design. Read more.
September 7, 2012
As part of the Federal Trade Commissions ("FTC") efforts to update the "Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule", the FTC has proposed to further modify the rule to clarify its scope and strengthen its protections for children’s personal information. These proposed revisions follow comments previously received by the FTC in 2011. Read more.
August 10, 2012
The Federal Trade Commission announced the results of a study it commissioned, which indicates that many consumers understand "up to" claims as promising maximum results. The FTC believes the study will help guide advertisers to avoid the use of misleading "up to" claims. Read more.
July 2, 2012
The terms of a proposed settlement of at least 17 lawsuits against Groupon may impact the way marketers of “daily deals” or other gift card offerings manage those deals and their expiration dates. Read more.
June 19, 2012
This week, the social network Myspace agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that Myspace did not honor its own promises to consumers in its privacy policy. Read more.
May 10, 2012
There are two news items from the advertising industry’s self-regulatory arena- the first from the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and the second from the National Advertising Review Council. Read more.
April 20, 2012
On March 30, 2012, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced that they merged into a single union. This new union, SAG-AFTRA, will now oversee the services of over 150,000 actors, recording artists, stunt performers and other media professionals. Read more.
April 13, 2012
The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") recently announced that it reached agreements with five car dealerships that require them to stop running ads in which they promise to pay off a consumer's trade-in vehicle no matter what the consumer owes. These cases are exemplary of the FTC's increased focus on consumer protection issues in motor vehicle transactions. Read more.
March 19, 2012
The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has closed its investigation of whether advertising claims made by Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc. violated the FTC Act, citing several reasons for its decision, including that Lucky had corrected all incorrect statements that its products were "made in the United States." Read more.
March 15, 2012
As part of a regular review of its rules and guides, the Federal Trade Commission is currently focusing on its "Wool Products Labeling Rules". These rules, which apply to any manufacturer, distributor, or labeler of wool products, were last modified in the year 2000. Read more.
March 13, 2012
In another example of the Federal Trade Commission's broad efforts to ensure that environmental marketing is truthful and based on solid scientific evidence, the FTC recently proposed settlement orders that prohibit five window replacement companies from making false claims about how much money consumers could save on their heating and cooling bills by having windows installed. Read more.
March 6, 2012
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