Advertising and Marketing

Richard Newman Quoted by Law.com on the FTC’s First Law Enforcement Challenging “Review Hijacking”

FTC advertising compliance and defense lawyer Richard B. Newman was recently quoted in an article for Law.com titled “FTC Bags First Settlement in Probe of ‘Review Hijacking’ in E-Commerce.” The article discusses the FTC’s first case alleging “review hijacking,” in which a marketer steals or repurposes reviews of another product.  The case involves a marketer…

FCC Proposed Rule Would Turn Lead Generation Industry on its Head

The FTC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would devastate the lead generation industry if enacted. The FCC Chairwoman has proposed a new rule that would block unlawful robotexts.  Read more, here. The FCC first issued a Report and Order requiring mobile wireless providers to block text messages from numbers on a reasonable Do Not…

What Advertisers, Ad Agencies and Review Sites Need to Know About the FTC’s Proposed Endorsement Guide Rule

The FTC’s Endorsement Guides are a roadmap about how the agency perceives marketing practices that involve endorsements and testimonials under Section 5 of the FTC Act.  To date, practices that do not comply with Guides often draw the attention of regulators, including the issuance of civil investigative demands and enforcement actions based upon alleged deceptive…

New York Attorney General and FTC Recover Millions for U.S. Servicemembers Allegedly Defrauded

New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Federal Trade Commission recently announced via a Stipulated Order the recovery of $34.2 million for more than 46,000 servicemembers and veterans that were alleged deceived and defrauded by national jewelry retailer, Harris Jewelry. The company allegedly used deceptive marketing tactics to lure active-duty servicemembers to their financing…

TCPA and Telemarketing Lead Generation Legal Update

Lead generators and those within the telemarketing ecosystem should know and appreciate the legal regulatory requirements, restrictions and risks prior to engaging such high-risk campaigns.  Violations of regulations, statutes and best practice guidelines can result in statutory penalties, as well as both personal and corporate. Below is a brief summary of recent legal developments may…

Use of Certain Technologies to Track Web Session Data May be Unlawful

Attention Lead Generators  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that use of certain technologies on a websites in order to track and record web session data before obtaining affirmative consent may be a violation of  California’s wiretap statute. In the case of Javier v. Assurance IQ, LLC and ActiveProspect Inc. (*not precedent except as…