It seems to be another star-spangled banner year for the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and its crackdown on certain “Made in USA” claims. In 2016, the FTC cited 29 companies for their misleading “Made in USA” claims. With the year’s halfway mark behind us, reports indicate that the FTC has similarly warned 11 companies for
SCOTUS Grants Review of Federal Ban on Sports Gambling
In one of its final acts of the October 2016 term, the Supreme Court of the United States recently agreed to hear a New Jersey challenge to the constitutionality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (“PAPSA”), a federal statute banning states from authorizing and regulating gambling on sporting events.[1]
As we reported
International Consumer Protection Agencies Will Share Intelligence About Business Practices
On June 30, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (“ICPEN”)—an international network of more than 60 consumer protection agencies—updated its website. Although seemingly minor, this update represents ICPEN’s continued efforts to coordinate resolution of international consumer protection issues.
For consumers, the ICPEN website is both
Caffeine Crash: Court Denies Class Certification for Consumers Contesting Caffeine Content
A United States district court recently tossed a certification bid by a putative class of consumers who alleged that popular energy-shot, 5-Hour Energy, deceptively marketed its effectiveness.
The action arises out of what appears to be a unique take on a traditional “slack fill” claim—that is, a case where the core allegation is that a
What’s next for the advertising industry? Blockchain
Industries are increasingly harnessing blockchain technology in new and innovative ways. Blockchain – a digital record, or ledger, of transactions – has the potential to revolutionize the way in which we conduct business across a variety of sectors, including the advertising industry. The application of Blockchain technology in the advertising industry is in its nascent
For Media Transparency, The Stars Are Starting to Align in the United Kingdom
UK-based media agency, the7stars, recently announced it would adopt the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers’ (ISBA) template agency agreement—an arrangement designed to foster a transparent relationship between advertisers and media buying agencies.
Since K2 Intelligence released its report on the U.S. media buying industry in June—a report which detailed non-transparent business practices employed by media
FTC Identifies Top Categories of Consumer Complaints for 2016
On Friday, March 3, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its annual summary of consumer complaints—a compendium of complaints lodged over the course of 2016. These complaints are collected through the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN), which is a database of millions of consumer complaints available to law enforcement agencies.
Of the over three million
Squeezing the Supply Chain: Premium Publishers Align with Advertisers in Fight to Clean Up Murky Digital Media Ecosystem
Advertisers aren’t alone in their quest to clean up the digital media ecosystem—this, according to an open letter penned by Digital Content Next (DCN) CEO Jason Kint.
Kint’s letter was in response to P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard’s IAB speech last month, where Pritchard drew a line in the sand regarding the quality and
Natural Consequences: FTC Finds California Company Misrepresented Product Ingredients as “All Natural”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently granted summary decision against California Natural Inc., a seller and marketer of personal care products, holding that the company engaged in false and misleading advertising in claiming that its sunscreen SPF 30 product was “all natural.”
Last April, the FTC issued an administrative complaint against California Natural, alleging that
It Was a Matter of Seconds: Putative Class Action Complaint Filed Over Facebook Video Metric Error
A putative class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook, Inc. just one month after Facebook announced that an erroneous formula had caused it to inflate a key video metric for the past two years.
Facebook admitted the error in a September 23, 2016 post on the Facebook business page. The metric at issue—the average