Regulatory - United States

Last week, Mars Petcare U.S., Inc. (“Mars”) settled its case with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) over certain advertising claims. In 2015, the FTC initiated an investigation of Mars’ advertising claims for its Eukanuba dog food. Its advertising claimed that dogs that ate Eukanuba lived 30% longer than their typical lifespan and that Eukanuba brand

The advertising industry’s self-regulatory arm, the National Advertising Division (“NAD”), recently reviewed certain advertising messages made by Vapore, LLC.  In both television and internet advertising, Vapore claimed that its “MyPurMist” handheld steam inhaler had “more 5-star reviews than any other steam inhaler.”  In connection with the 5-star review message, Vapore focused on certain attributes of

The FCC is asking for comments on a letter it received from the National Association of Attorneys General that seeks out the Commission’s opinion on the legality of telephone carriers implementing call-blocking technology to reduce the amount of unwanted telemarketing calls. If your company engages in marketing over the telephone or uses it to regularly conduct business with customers, you may want to consider getting involved. Comments are due December 24, 2014, and reply comments are due January 8, 2015. For more on this, please read the latest post on our Global Regulatory Enforcement Law Blog.
Continue Reading FCC Rings the Bell for Public Comments Regarding Robocalls and Call-Blocking

In case you missed last week’s Association of National Advertisers webinar covering the FTC’s Operation Full Disclosure, please join John Feldman of Reed Smith and Michael Ostheimer of the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices on Monday, December 1, 2014, as they present on a program entitled, Operation Full Disclosure: What You Need to Know About TV and Print Disclaimers, hosted by the American Bar Association (Section of Antitrust Law).

Find out what Operation Full Disclosure means to you and your clients, and learn about the Commission’s ongoing efforts to educate the industry on proper disclosure practices as well as potential enforcement activities.
Continue Reading ABA Event – Operation Full Disclosure: What You Need to Know About TV and Print Disclaimers

Don’t miss out on your chance to learn how the FTC’s Operation Full Disclosure can affect you. Join us November 18 at 1:00 p.m. ET for the complimentary webinar, “The FTC’s Operation Full Disclosure: What You Need to Know.” Led by John P. Feldman, partner at Reed Smith LLP, and Michael Ostheimer, staff attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices, the webinar will cover ways to ensure all ads are complying with the FTC’s standards, the latest on the commission’s ongoing efforts to educate the industry on proper disclosure practices, and what to expect in the coming months with regard to enforcement.

This webinar is part of a series of complimentary webinars from the ANA Government Relations group focused on legal and regulatory issues currently affecting the marketing community.

For more information or to register visit http://www.ana.net/webinars/show/id/LRE-NOV14.
Continue Reading The FTC’s Operation Full Disclosure: What You Need to Know

Advertisers, read our firm’s latest client alert on the FTC’s Operation Full Disclosure to learn about what your company can do to meet the FTC’s “clear and conspicuous” requirements. Take advantage of this opportunity to closely review and remedy any inadequacies in your advertising disclosures before more aggressive steps are taken by the FTC and the plaintiffs’ class action bar.
Continue Reading ‘Full Disclosure’ Provides Advertisers with Opportunity to Fix Inadequate Disclosures

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) approved final changes to its Guides for Advertising Allowances and Other Merchandising Payments (the “Guides”), also known as the Fred Meyer Guides. The Guides were originally issued in 1969, and subsequently revised in 1990, to help businesses comply with sections 2(d) and (e) of the Robinson Patman Act (the “Act”). The Act generally prohibits certain forms of price discrimination between suppliers and the merchants who resell their products. Sections 2(d) and (e), which are the focus of the Guides, are designed to prohibit disguised price discrimination in the form of promotional payments or services. In other words, a supplier is prohibited from paying allowances or furnishing services to merchants to promote the resale of the supplier’s products, unless the allowances or services are offered to all competing merchants on proportionally equal terms. The Act aims to help small businesses compete against chain stores by prohibiting anticompetitive price discrimination by suppliers, and certain other kinds of business discrimination. In December 2012, the FTC sought public comment on the Guides, and input on the overall costs and benefits and continuing need for the Guides.

In response to the comments solicited, the FTC approved moderate changes to the Guides in order to update them with respect to current technological developments, changes in marketing methods (such as widespread online marketing), and FTC enforcement priorities. The changes also reflect jurisprudential developments since the last revision of the Guides.
Continue Reading Fred Meyer Guide Revisions Are Friendly Reminder to Suppliers to Check Their Current Practices

In letters sent to more than 60 companies, including 20 of the top 100 TV and print advertisers in the country, the FTC warned companies to review specific ads to ensure their disclosures are “clear and conspicuous,” and that they comply with federal advertising regulations.

In a press release on Tuesday, the FTC explained the initiative – Operation Full Disclosure – as the agency’s latest effort to guide companies to follow proper disclosure standards and avoid misleading consumers. Specifically, the agency targeted disclosures made in fine print or that were easy to miss by the average consumer. The FTC explained that disclosures should be in proximity to the claims to which they relate and in easy-to-read font color, size, and style, so consumers have access to all relevant information. For TV ads, disclosures “should be on the screen long enough to be noticed, read, and understood, and other elements in the ads should not obscure or distract from the disclosures.”

The FTC is keeping the names of those companies targeted secret in an effort to allow them a chance to adhere to disclosure laws. However, without getting too specific, the agency hinted toward recurring problems. For example, the FTC explained in some ads, “the advertiser claimed that a product was unique or superior in a product category, but did not adequately disclose how narrowly the advertiser defined the category, while other comparative ads did not adequately disclose the basis of their comparisons.”
Continue Reading FTC Warns More Than 60 National Advertisers in ‘Operation Full Disclosure’

The Federal Trade Commission held a workshop on September 15, entitled “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” where FTC Commissioner Julie Brill emphasized the push to place more scrutiny on data brokers, reaffirming ideas and objectives expressed in the FTC’s May 2014 report on transparency and accountability.
Continue Reading FTC Focuses on Data Brokers at Big Data Workshop