For those who haven’t been following Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) news too closely for the past few weeks, there has been lots of turmoil and drama. A few weeks ago – on Valentine’s Day, no less – Commissioner Christine Wilson issued a statement in the Wall Street Journal that, let’s just say, was … Continue Reading
So our holiday gift from the FTC, which flew a bit under the radar if you ask us, was the Health Products Compliance Guide. This was quietly heralded as an update to the 1998 Dietary Supplement Advertising Guides, but oh dear readers, it is so much more. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but … Continue Reading
On March 6, the FDA announced the launch of its new “Dietary Supplement Ingredient Directory.” According to the FDA, the directory is “a one-stop shop of ingredient information that was previously found on different FDA webpages.” It will allow users to search for information on ingredients in dietary supplements and quickly find links to agency … Continue Reading
It’s not every day that we get to announce new content created especially for advertising and marketing enthusiasts who just can’t get enough about legal issues in advertising and the latest from the Federal Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division. With that, we are proud to launch AD Nauseam, a new podcast series from … Continue Reading
We always look forward to the thoughtful and data-rich report National Advertising Division (NAD) issues each year summarizing the work it has accomplished in the past year. Some of the data can be a bit difficult to parse, as some numbers are reported in cases decided in the prior year, while other numbers are reported … Continue Reading
To modest fanfare, last week the Federal Trade Commission announced the creation of a new Office of Technology (Office or OTech). The press release noted that the Office “will strengthen the FTC’s ability to keep pace with technological challenges in the digital marketplace by supporting the agency’s law enforcement and policy work.” Any details about … Continue Reading
You make soap, and you come out with a new scent. Then, due to supply issues, you need to change fragrance manufacturers but are confident the new fragrance is almost identical to the old fragrance. Can you use reviews of other soaps in the line? What if you make a widget and you upgrade it, … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, Commissioner Christine Wilson of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) announced – in her own words – her “noisy exit” from the Commission in a statement published in The Wall Street Journal (linked but behind a paywall). She will be leaving the agency at an undetermined date and has not indicated … Continue Reading
Health privacy has been a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) priority for decades, and indeed, one of its very first privacy cases, in the early 2000s, involved the inadvertent sharing of user health data. Fast-forward a few decades, and health privacy remains a major concern. Case in point: The latest FTC privacy enforcement action focuses on the practices of … Continue Reading
The days are short and the nights are long, but at least we have the monthly public Federal Trade Commission (FTC) meeting to keep us entertained and informed during these cold months. And we had a bit of an unusual agenda yesterday. First up were some congratulations to Chair Lina Khan on the birth of … Continue Reading
In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued “Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry,” and for years that document served as an important starting point for analyzing health claims for dietary supplements. Of course, since that document was issued, the FTC has announced hundreds of cases challenging claims that companies have made for health … Continue Reading
New Year’s resolutions are usually quite personal – nobody wants friends telling them how to improve their lives. Knowing this, I nevertheless offer a few resolutions to my former employer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Watching the agency from the outside for the past 14 months, a number of things have jumped out at me … Continue Reading
Nothing says Holiday Season like the final public Federal Trade Commission meeting of the very long year. The lights are hung, joy is sort of in the air and we turn to our four commissioners for even more holiday cheer. Well actually, this week there were just three – Commissioner Wilson was not in attendance … Continue Reading
If there were any question whether the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was reenacting the 1970s, that question has been put to rest. And unfortunately, it’s not about seeing Grace Jones, Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol at Studio 54 or wearing our finest velour shirts; the 1970s also saw quite a lot of rulemaking at … Continue Reading
Amy Mudge and Daniel Kaufman Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted an event to look at kids’ digital marketing. Here is a rough transcript; and if you have a spare five hours, you can watch the videos, which will soon be posted on the event page. The big question is whether the FTC will … Continue Reading
A few weeks ago, we wrote about an interesting development in what had been a fairly standard Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Made in the USA (MUSA) settlement. In short, the company had some major beef with the FTC’s press release about its case. The company and its owner filed a motion to get out of … Continue Reading
For some time now, dark patterns have been quite the trending topic for both marketers and privacy professionals. Regulators have frequently railed against dark patterns that purport to manipulate user choices, usually through manipulative user interfaces. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation called the DETOUR Act that would ban dark patterns. And outside this … Continue Reading
After a surprise three-month hiatus, we are back in business with our Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) public and totally unscripted meetings. Candidly, we were a bit surprised to see the return of these meetings, but not quite as surprised as the realization that Kate Bush had the Song of the Summer in 2022. … Continue Reading
Because I’m someone who is inherently suspicious, my antennae perked up the other Friday when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its annual strategic planning documents. Friday releases in the summer always make me suspicious (what are you trying to bury on this Friday afternoon when I am pondering the weekend?); further, these documents included … Continue Reading
P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Oscar Wilde, however, gave that quote his own spin and said, “There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Well, some folks most definitely disagree when a whole settlement potentially is tanked over … Continue Reading
A recent federal court decision found that FleetCor, a company that sells fuel card services to businesses, and its CEO had violated the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) Act through a series of deceptive and unfair acts and practices. It is not every day that the FTC sues the CEO of a publicly traded … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was initiating a rulemaking to “crack down on harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security.” More specifically, the agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security and announced a related workshop on the topic. This rulemaking will … Continue Reading
A recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit and settlement with Opendoor Labs Inc. (Opendoor) is a must-read even if you are not in the real estate business. But if you don’t want to actually read it, we’ve got you covered. The case raises a range of issues regarding how savings claims are made to consumers … Continue Reading
Most of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) law enforcement actions involving payment processors have exclusively focused on allegations that processors did not do sufficient due diligence before onboarding questionable merchants. The latest payment processing case, however, has a bit of a novel twist and focuses instead on alleged deceptions aimed at the merchants that were … Continue Reading