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.

The self-regulatory body that oversees advertising aimed at children, the Better Business Bureau (“BBB”) National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”), has issued revised CARU Advertising Guidelines (the “Revised Guidelines”). The Revised Guidelines state that advertisers recognize that children have limited knowledge and sophistication, and as such their ability to evaluate the credibility of advertising is limited. It is within this context that the Revised Guidelines seek to ensure that advertising directed to children is not deceptive or inappropriate. The Revised Guidelines apply to advertising content targeting children under the age of 13.

On July 9, 2021, the Colorado Governor signed Colorado House Bill No. 1239 into law, resulting in Colorado becoming the latest state to enact new automatic renewal and cancellation procedures applicable to consumer sales contracts. In addition to addressing general automatic renewal contracts, the new Colorado law establishes certain requirements regarding the execution and enforcement of dating service contracts.

An overwhelming number of US/Canada international sweepstakes promotions typically void the Canadian province of Quebec, resulting in Quebec residents being ineligible to participate. The province is typically voided because of a French translation requirement and a novel registration and tax regime based on prize value with the Regie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (the “Régie”). In an effort to expand sweepstakes offerings to this highly populated Canadian province, it has been reported that Quebec recently changed its promotion registration and tax requirements, making it easier to run international promotions open to Quebec residents.

FTC trying to recover the right to seek disgorgement of unjust enrichment in federal court

Court allows FTC to withdraw disgorgement claims with eye towards possible reinstatement. 

Olshan Intellectual Property/Brand Management and Protection partner Mary Grieco was quoted in a recent Law360 article (subscription required) entitled “Apple’s App Tracking Shift Seizes On ‘Spirit’ Of Privacy Laws.”

FTC can no longer go straight to court to recover monetary damages

The New Jersey Law Journal (subscription required) reported that Olshan partner Scott Shaffer achieved a full dismissal with prejudice of a Consumer Fraud Act class action suit on behalf of Pure Radiance, a distributor/manufacturer of wellness products. The suit was dismissed because the lawyer-plaintiff, Harold Hoffman, claimed that the purchased nutritional product did not perform as advertised. The lawyer-plaintiff asserted that the advertising for the consumer product made claims that were not substantiated by research, but in a first-of-its-kind state court decision, the court ruled that sort of claim is reserved for the attorney general, not a private plaintiff. The Court further ruled that the lawsuit failed to allege sufficient facts to state a claim under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act.  Scott Shaffer was quoted as saying that “the judge’s ruling is correct in assessing the Consumer Fraud Act, and on behalf of the client, I’m pleased with the ruling.”

Ruling opens the door for increased use of autodialed calls

Olshan Intellectual Property/Brand Management and Protection partner Mary Grieco was featured on IP Talk, the news blog of Inlex IP Expertise, a French industrial property law firm focusing on trademarks, domain names and data protection.

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