On January 30, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held in POM Wonderful, LLC, et al. v. Federal Trade Commission that the FTC did not have an adequate basis to require POM Wonderful, LLC to conduct a minimum of two successful “randomized and controlled human clinical trials” before making advertising claims regarding product efficacy and … Read more
According to Josh Ogle, the following person is hacking accounts, redirect to offers without permission and potentially, illegally. FYI – this fella is hacking peoples’ tracking accounts, then redirecting to his offers. Shalman Dunkley Lot 12 Meylers Piece Little London, Jamaica Province: Westmoreland Postal Code: JMDWD13 PUB IDS: GrabAds – 36825 Guru Media – 301060 … Read more
Verizon Wireless has been using a new type of cookie to help target ads to mobile customers. The new cookie has been dubbed the ‘supercookie’ and collects additional information and uses it to help improve the quality of marketing. Verizon has given all their users an option to opt-out of having the supercookie used on … Read more
The Federal Communications Commission Chair, Tom Wheeler, took some time for a one on one interview with Gary Shapiro, the Consumer Electronics’ Association CEO, and he had some interesting things to say. The interview took place at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in front of a fairly large audience, most of whom would strongly support … Read more
Just as the world of mobile advertising and marketing is starting to really focus on the ‘Internet of Things’ and how they can best use it to display ads and drive sales, the FTC is issuing a fairly serious warning. Edith Ramirez, the FTC chairwoman, commented at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las … Read more
The FTC has been investigating the business practices of Yelp for quite some time now, but it appears that it is finally coming to a conclusion. In the past, Yelp has paid $450,000 to settle one investigation, which was related to alleged COPPA violations due to improper collection of information from members under the age … Read more
On December 18, 2014 in the matter of ZooBuh, Inc. v. Williams et al., the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah ruled that electronic mail messages sent via a company’s servers by a third party, without the latter’s knowledge, did not create minimum contacts to establish general or specific jurisdiction. ZooBuh Inc. is … Read more
The FTC has launched an initiative that they titled, “Operation Full Disclosure” a short time ago. The initiative is focused on making sure advertisers are making adequate disclosures in their advertisement campaigns. The FTC seems to be ramping up the enforcement and other efforts related to this initiative, they have just recently sent out warning … Read more
Two companies that market skin care and weight-loss products must stop making false or unsubstantiated deceptive claims about their products, under settlements resolving charges in two separate cases brought by the Federal Trade Commission. In one case, the FTC challenged ads for DermaTend, a skin cream that was promoted for do-it-yourself removal of moles, skin … Read more
Sony hired Deutsch LA’s marketing to help promote the PlayStation Vita back in 2012. In the campaign, the agency asked people to tweet about the gaming device using the Twitter hash tag “#GameChanger.” To help get the campaign more attention, the marketing company sent out an email to their employees asking them to begin using … Read more
Device fingerprinting is a common way for websites to quickly gather information about a visitor to help customize their experience. The most basic way it is used is to determine what type of device is accessing a site, and then loading the right user interface. For example, it would allow a site to display a … Read more
Last summer Oreo paid a number of popular YouTube stars to talk about their “Lick Race” promotion. This helped the Oreo campaign get millions of extra views, but now they are also getting a warning from UK ad watchdog agencies. The problem, according to UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, is that these paid promotions were not … Read more
The case is Roslowski et al. (“Plaintiffs”) v. Guthy-Renker LLC (“Guthy”). The gravamen of the allegations were that Guthy sent Plaintiffs unsolicited commercial email advertisements which, instead of identifying the sender as Guthy, indicated the sender was “Proactiv Special Offer,” “Wen Hair Care,” “Proactiv Special Bonus Deal,” “Wen Healthy Hair,” “Wen by Chaz Dean,” “Proactiv … Read more
Google, as well as Yellowbook and Ziplocal, are being sued by a locksmith who does business in Northern Virginia and Maryland. The locksmith is citing multiple state and local laws, including the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) in the lawsuit, which is claiming $8.4 million in lost earnings and profit. The main points … Read more