The Advertising Law Blog provides commentary and news on developing legal issues in advertising, promotional marketing, Internet, and privacy law. This blog is sponsored by the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions group at Olshan. The practice is geared to servicing the needs of the advertising, promotional marketing, and digital industries with a commitment to providing personal, efficient and effective legal service.
Visa has announced that to enable greater transparency, choice, and control for customers, effective April 18, 2020, it is updating its Policy for Subscription Merchants Offering Free Trials or Introductory Promotions. In an effort to help merchants comply with these new policies, Visa has created a Trial Subscription Quick Reference Card and a Reminder Notice with answers to frequently asked questions. While not binding as a regulatory matter, compliance with Visa’s policies is important under companies’ merchant processing agreements.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has announced its intent to withdraw its Compliance Policy Guide 400.400 (1988) (“CPG 400.400”) for homeopathic drug products pursuant to which such products have been permitted to be marketed without having to comply with the new drug, adulteration and misbranding requirements that are otherwise applied to all drug products. Under CPG 400.400, homeopathic drug products were permitted to be manufactured and marketed without the FDA approval applicable to all other drug products. However, due to certain incidents involving improperly manufactured homeopathic drug products, in 2017 the FDA announced its intention to switch to a risk-based enforcement approach for unapproved homeopathic drug products.
Influencer marketing is one of the most popular marketing tools for companies in today’s market. Influencers can make substantial sums of money for just one post. While this is a great way for influencers to earn a living and for companies to get their message across to today’s consumers, there are risks involved with social media marketing if not executed properly. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), among other responsibilities, works to stop deceptive advertising. As we have previously reported, everyone involved in social media marketing needs to be sure that influencers comply with the FTC’s Enforcement Guidelines (the “Guidelines”).
Liu v. SEC will also likely affect Federal Trade Commission’s powers