Lead Generation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced its intention to rescind its 2020 “abusive acts and practices” policy statement.  The CFPB’s authority to prevent such practices stems from the Dodd-Frank Act, which also created the CFPB. In 2020, the CFPB set forth narrow principles that should be considered when applying its “abusive” authority.  The first,…

Social media endorsements: being transparent with your followers Influencer marketing and review websites have attracted a great deal of attention recently by states and federal regulatory agencies, including the FTC.  The FTC’s Endorsement Guides addresses the application of Section 5 of the FTC Act to the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The FTC Endorsement Guides suggest…

Volkswagen launched a marketing campaign.  It paid dealerships nationwide to retain a third party to place service reminder calls to their customers.  Automated technologies were purportedly used to make calls to plaintiff without consent. The Central District of California decertified a class of these TCPA plaintiffs because consent issues were so individualized that the plaintiffs…

As blogged about here and here, brands and intermediary agencies that they do business with are expected to train and monitor endorsers, utilize written social media policies, take appropriate remedial action and document all efforts to implement preventative advertising compliance measures, including those designed to ensure the clear and conspicuous disclosure of material  connections between advertisers and…

As blogged about here, the FTC’s authority to seek monetary disgorgement relief from defendants in federal court is under assault.  Consequently, all five FTC Commissioners have recently forwarded a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Minority members of the Senate Commerce and House Energy & Commerce Committees urging the Committees to pass legislation that would…

The Supreme Court has started its new term.  FTC defense practitioners are watching closely as the Court is considering issues that may dramatically impact FTC CID investigations and enforcement actions, particularly whether Section 13(b) of the FTC Act impliedly authorizes courts to award the FTC equitable monetary relief. The Supreme Court Has Already Limited Disgorgement…