Advertising Law Blog

As previously discussed in this blog, the FTC held a workshop on negative option marketing. Now, the panelists' presentation materials from the FTC's workshop analyzing marketing of goods and services utilizing negative options are online. A negative option is the marketing of goods or services (typically continuity) through advance consent, and which requires the purchaser to affirmatively decline or cancel product or service once the initial advance consent has been given. Negative option programs have continued to garner regulatory scrutiny, and the workshop was designed to address four main topics: the pros and cons of negative option marketing from consumer, business, and academic perspectives; consumer behavior with respect to online offers; standards for making negative option offers; and what constitutes acceptable clear and conspicuous disclosures.