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On February 13, 2020, the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) published a proposal to soften the regulatory requirements for influencers for labeling their posts as advertising (Proposal). Under the Proposal, statements posted on social media about products for which no consideration was given – either in the form of monetary compensation…

Carmen Electra, joined by models Dessie Mitcheson and Lucy Pinder, sued a Colorado strip club over the club’s allegedly unauthorized use of its photographs on its website and social media in late January of this year. The aggrieved trio claims that the Denver club “Shotgun Willie’s” posted photos of the models in online advertisements for…

Model and meme icon Kelleth Cuthbert (real name Kelly Steinbach) became an overnight sensation as “Fiji Water Girl” after photobombing celebrities on the Golden Globes red carpet in January. Now, she is seeking to recover against Fiji Water Company and its parent company, The Wonderful Company, for allegedly misappropriating her likeness and violating her right…

In 2013, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Chemical Free Solutions LLC (“CFS”) reached a settlement barring CFS from making scientifically unsupported claims regarding the efficacy of its cedar oil-based bed bug eradication product Cedarcide Original. CFS made various false claims about its “BEST Yet!” bed bug and head lice products, including that it was…

You can still get your quarter ham “STARTING AT $23.99” from Honey Baked Ham, Inc. according to the California Court of Appeal in its unpublished decision on November 8, 2016.  The Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court’s judgment that Honey Baked Ham, Inc. did not engage in unfair competition or in false or deceptive…

In June, we covered Daily Fantasy Sports (“DFS”) operators’ major legislative victory in New York: a bill legalizing and regulating their business, ending the potential for an outright prohibition on DFS in the state. That bill’s passage was akin to clinching the pennant.

With the New York Attorney General (“NYAG”) announcing yesterday that it settled…

This week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit nutrition and food-safety watchdog group, filed a class action against PepsiCo, alleging that Pepsi misled consumers by marketing its popular Naked Juices as healthier than they really are. The complaint alleges product packaging and advertising for Naked Juices suggest or imply that…

Late last week, Dun & Bradstreet Creditability Corp. and its related entities settled a class action lawsuit. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Dun & Bradstreet violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) by using an automatic dialing system to call cellular phones without prior express consent of the plaintiffs. As part of the…

The international phenomenon surrounding the mobile game Pokémon Go has captured the attention of marketers. As we have discussed before, until Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, makes sponsorship more readily available, marketers in the U.S. and across the globe have found interesting and innovative ways to latch onto the Pokémon Go craze. The…

One of the goals of the federal JOBS Act, enacted in 2012, was to expand the ability of companies (both operating companies and funds) to make non-registered securities offerings using general solicitation and advertising. Offers made through general solicitation and advertising have been prohibited under the SEC’s private offering safe harbor ever since Regulation D was adopted in 1982, and many have complained that the restriction was pointless where all purchasers were accredited investors as defined in Regulation D. However, the SEC believed a change required legislation.

The JOBS Act made that change. However, the Act, and the new rule adopted in 2013, imposed a new requirement – the issuer of the securities must take reasonable steps to “verify” that all the purchasers in a general solicitation offering are accredited investors. Failure to take reasonable verification steps would violate the rule even if it turned out that all purchasers actually were accredited.
Continue Reading New SIFMA Guidance May Ease Accredited Investor Verification Worries, Assist Reg D Offerings Using General Solicitation