Consumer Law

Ranking companies by ID Theft

Posted on March 04, 2008
Slashdot and the NY Times discuss a report by Chris Hoofnagle, a senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, that ranks companies by consumer ID theft complaints to the FTC.

Still no cure for the common cold

Posted on March 04, 2008
The makers of Airborne agreed to pay $23 million to settle allegations that they falsely advertised that their products would cure or prevent colds. The settlement will include refunds for people who purchased the product. According to the Center for...

Alcoholic Energy Drinks Get Unwanted Attention

Posted on February 21, 2008
According to the WSJ, a number of state Attorneys General have requested documents from Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing regarding their marketing of caffeinated alcoholic drinks. The states have had issues with the marketing of alcoholic beverages (see post here) and the marketing of energy drinks (see post here), so it is no surprise that they are looking into the marketing of alcoholic energy drinks...

What's in your milk?

Posted on February 07, 2008
ABC news reports on the battle between a group of farmers backed by Monsanto and another group of farmers supported by Ben & Jerry's over whether dairies can label milk "rBST Free."  For over a decade Ben & Jerry's has labeled its products as free of recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

FTC to host workshop on M-commerce

Posted on February 06, 2008
Details are a bit thin right now but the workshop will be held May 6-7 at the FTC Conference Center in  Washington DC. Topics will include: The use of mobile-messaging services as instruments of M-commerce; Consumers? ability to control mobile applications; The adaptation of advertising to mobile devices, including the challenges presented by small screen disclosures; M-commerce practices targeting children and teens; Industry best practices in preventing fraud, disclosing costs, and resolving billing disputes; Evolving security threats and solutions; and Next-generation products and services...

Abercrombie & Fitch -- obscene for a day

Posted on February 05, 2008
According to the Virginia-Pilot, Virginia Beach plans to drop obscenity charges against an Abercrombie & Fitch manager and return to the store two promotional photos that police confiscated over the weekend.  The photos that caused the stir are below...

Invoice ? advertising

Posted on January 30, 2008
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently held that an invoice accompanying a concrete curing blanket was not commercial advertising for purposes of a false advertising claim under the Lanham Act. Midwest Canvas Corp. v. Commonwealth Canvas, Inc...

There's a perfect job for everyone

Posted on January 30, 2008

Truncate card numbers and delete expiration dates

Posted on January 29, 2008
In the first decision I am aware of on the issue, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania applied the primary provision of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) to in-box receipts provided as part of a mail order transaction...

Dannon sued over 'probiotic' yogurt claims

Posted on January 25, 2008
According to Reuters, a class action lawsuit was filed earlier this week alleging that Dannon Co. Inc. falsely advertised that its Activia, Activia Lite and DanActive products were "clinically" and "scientifically" "proven" to have health benefits that other yogurts do not...

Drug Makers Yank Vytorin TV Ads

Posted on January 23, 2008
According to Adage, Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. have yanked the popular "two sources" TV advertising campaign for cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin.  Apparently this is the result of a 2006 study showing that Vytorin does not reduce plaque in arteries as claimed...

FTC seeks comments on credit freeze statutes

Posted on January 21, 2008
The Federal Trade Commission is seeking comments on the effectiveness of state credit freeze statutes.  In an effort to prevent identity theft thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes that allow consumers to prevent consumer reporting agencies from releasing consumer reports (credit reports) until the freeze is lifted...

Like no other

Posted on January 21, 2008

Life is good, being hacked is not

Posted on January 17, 2008
Apparel retailers Life Is Good, Inc. and Life is Good Retail, Inc. settled Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that they misrepresented their security and privacy policies.  According to the FTC, the claims that the retailers were "committed to maintaining" customer privacy and "all information is kept in a secure file" were deceptive because credit card information was stored in unencrypted text files and the Life Is Good web site was vulnerable to SQL injection attacks...

FTC affirmed in Q-Ray

Posted on January 15, 2008
The Seventh Circuit has upheld a district court ruling requiring marketers of the "Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet"�� to give up almost $16 million in net profits.  The ten-page decision is entertaining and includes some points on advertising substantiation that are worth reading...

People are tired of privacy/security breaches

Posted on January 09, 2008
Consumers are tired of the having their data exploited or compromised.  And, as this article from BusinessWeek make clear, they are increasingly voicing their displeasure through lawsuits and coordinated complaints. Recently Sears was hit with both after customers learned that it exposed their purchase histories and the CA Security Advisor Blog walked readers through how Sears distributed Spyware to consumers that joined its SHC Community...

Summary of FTC's Unfairness and Deception authority

Posted on January 02, 2008
The Federal Trade Commission submitted comments to the Office of Thrift Supervision to help that agency assess whether it should expand its prohibitions over unfair and deceptive practices.  The 26-page document is an excellent summary of the FTC's authority to proscribe and prosecute unfair and deceptive practices...

FDA to review evidence behind certain health claims

Posted on December 26, 2007
The Food & Drug Administration is requesting comments on its intent to reevaluate the evidence supporting its decision to allow certain health claims.  A copy of the federal register notice is here.

Proposed Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles

Posted on December 20, 2007
Federal Trade Commission staff is requesting comments on their just released Proposed Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles. The proposed principles were developed as a result of a recent FTC workshop addressing technology and a town hall addressing behavioral marketing...

$31.5 million for gambling ads

Posted on December 19, 2007
According to the AP, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to settle charges that they accepted money for ads promoting illegal gambling.  Microsoft will pay $21 million, Yahoo $7.5 million, and Google the balance...

Is it a survey or a sweepstakes?

Posted on December 18, 2007
According to Business Week, this will be one issue in a lawsuit by Philips Electronics against Procter & Gamble Co. over P&G's claims for its Pulsonic electric shaver.   According the lawsuit P&G's claim that 9 out of 10 men polled in a Men's Health survey said that the Pulsonic was the "best electric shaver they ever tried" was based on a sweepstakes where men were given a free shaver and not an actual survey...

"A" for effort. . .

Posted on December 06, 2007
According to AdAge, McDonald's is advertising on report-cards.  In exchange for picking up the cost of printing report-cards, about $1,600, Seminole County, Florida is allowing McDonald's to put a Happy Meal coupon on the report-card jacket.  To qualify for the free Happy Meal, the child must present his or her report-card showing all A's and B's or two or fewer absences...

IBM's hot lawsuit

Posted on December 05, 2007
IBM has filed a lawsuit in the Northern District Ohio against Shentech alleging false advertising, trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices. The suit comes as a result of IBM's recent discovery that Shentech has been manufacturing and marketing laptop batteries falsely branded as "IBM" batteries...

Green Guide Review

Posted on November 28, 2007
The FTC is going to review its  environmental marketing guidelines, or "Green Guides."  While the review was scheduled to begin in 2009, the FTC has decided to speed it up because of the current climate.  The first step is a workshop on January 8, 2008...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.