The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently closed its investigation of Hyundai Motor America’s (“Hyundai”) alleged violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. § 45) in connection with a blogging campaign conducted to spark interest in Hyundai’s Super Bowl XLV ads. The inquiry focused on whether bloggers were given gift certificates as an incentive to comment on or post links to the ads and if they were explicitly told not to disclose this information in violation of the FTC Endorsement Guides.
The Endorsement Guides require the disclosure of any material connection between an endorser and an advertiser that is not reasonably expected by the audience. In its closing letter, the FTC stated that a gift to a blogger for posting specific content promoting an advertiser’’s products or services is likely to constitute such a material connection. Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced last week that Facebook has settled charges that it deceived consumers by making false privacy assurances, and then repeatedly allowing consumer information to be shared and made public. The settlement serves as a timely reminder that companies must abide by their own statements regarding how personal information is used and shared.
Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook is: Read more »
The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) has announced the first six compliance agreements with online behavioral marketers under its Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program’s (Program) self-regulatory regime.
Beginning in August, the Program began testing the functionality, usability, and duration of consumer-choice mechanisms offered by a number of companies. As a result of that testing, self-regulatory inquiries were opened with Forbes Media Extension (FMX), Martini Media, PredictAd, QuinStreet, Reedge and Veruta. The cases primarily concerned the duration of end users’ opt-out options. For example, FMX’s opt-out cookie was set to expire in less than six months from the date of the request, rather than the industry standard five-year time frame. Other cases involved the accessibility of the opt-out mechanism. QuinStreet’s and Veruta’s (MyBuys) opt-out mechanisms, for example, were inaccessible due to either a missing or broken link. Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed settlement with the online advertiser ScanScout, announced yesterday, offers a timely reminder of the importance of ensuring that your company’s stated privacy practices align with how your company actually collects and uses information.
ScanScout is a video advertising network that places advertisements on websites and, in the process, tracks online browsing behavior via cookies. This tracking enables ScanScout to serve advertisements that correspond to users’ interests. According to the FTC complaint, ScanScout’s website privacy policy included some disclosure about the use of cookies to track users’ behavior. Notably, for several years, ScanScout’s privacy policy stated: “You can opt out of receiving a cookie by changing your browser settings to prevent the receipt of cookies.” Read more »
Today advertisers are not only mastering the art of speaking through social media channels, they are also exploring ways to listen and learn. But while “social listening” or “social media monitoring” can yield valuable market data, these practices also raise privacy and ethical concerns.
To help marketers navigate this important frontier, The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (“CASRO”) recently issued social media research guidelines (the “Guidelines”). While the Guidelines are not laws, and are not even mandated by CASRO to its members, they are designed to establish best practices for research and observation in the social media space. Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its proposed revisions to the rule (Rule) implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The revisions would update the existing Rule to cover social media, mobile devices, and other technologies that were not taken into account at the time the Rule was enacted.
Over a decade ago, COPPA was enacted to prohibit “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information” from and about children under the age of 13 on the Internet. COPPA requires that operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13, or that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under 13, obtain verifiable consent from parents before collecting, using or disclosing such information. The Rule contains a “safe harbor” provision enabling industry groups to submit to the FTC for approval self-regulatory guidelines implementing the Rule’s protections. Read more »
The rise of eReader devices and eReader marketplaces provides more and more opportunities for online self-publishers. While these technologies have given a myriad of authors the joy and remuneration of publishing their work, they have also led to modern abuses – abuses that affect intellectual property owners and consumers alike.
First, because the barriers to uploading manuscripts through self-publishing programs are low, some self-publishers have deployed automatically generated content (e.g., pages of HTML code), Web-collected content (e.g., Wikipedia.com pages), or altogether fake content (paragraphs pulled together seemingly at random), and uploaded these as eBooks for sale. Scam self-publishers receive royalties, use multiple identities to manipulate their “book” reviews, and move their “books” to other eBook stores if they are revealed.
Second, scam self-publishers often misuse, dilute, and infringe trademarks, rip-off trade dress, and violate copyrights. Additionally, the way eBook stores sell their eBooks makes it more likely consumers will be confused by a scammer or infringer. That is because eBook titles are searchable and displayed next to authorized books in search results. Thus, buyers who see an unauthorized eBook for sale right next to an official eBook may not know the unauthorized book is a fake that has misappropriated the good will of the author for whom they were searching. This practice can significantly impact sales figures, brand equity, and even the ability to bring certain copyright claims.
While some eBook sellers have recently claimed to crack down on these problems, we continue to see them affecting our clients. We recommend authors and publishers self-monitor eBook stores and bring any concerns to our attention.
If you have any questions regarding this alert, or about other trademark matters, please contact Rachel Kronman at 212.705.4855 or rkronman@fkks.com, Mary Sotis at 212.705.4878 or msotis@fkks.com, Toby Butterfield at 212.826.5567 or tbutterfield@fkks.com, or any other member of the Frankfurt Kurnit Trademark Group.
New York’s highest court has held that a plaintiff’s claim against a blog operator arising out of allegedly defamatory comments posted to the blog was barred by the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”). It was the first time the New York Court of Appeals has ruled on a CDA defense.
In Shiamili v. The Real Estate Group of New York, Inc., the plaintiff, founder and CEO of Ardor Realty Corp. (“Ardor”), sued its competitor Real Estate Group of New York, Inc. (“REGNY”), and REGNY’s principal and an employee, alleging that certain REGNY blog posts were defamatory. Specifically, an anonymous visitor to the blog, operating under the pseudonym “Ardor Realty Sucks,” posted several allegedly defamatory statements suggesting that plaintiff had mistreated his employees, was anti-Semitic, and had referred to one of the company’s agents as “his token Jew.” The defendant later moved the comment to a stand-alone post, prefacing it with the following statement: “the following story came to us as a comment and we promoted it to a post.” The defendant also added the heading, “Ardor Realty and Those People,” and the subheading, “and now it’s time for your weekly dose of hate, brought to you unedited, once again, by ‘Ardor Realty Sucks’ and for the record, we are so not afraid.” The post was accompanied by an image of Jesus Christ with plaintiff’s face and the words, “Chris Shiamili: King of the Token Jews.” Allegedly, several of the comments posted by anonymous users in the discussion thread contained further defamatory statements and the defendant posted comments under a pseudonym encouraging further comments. Plaintiff asked defendants to remove the statements, but defendants refused.
Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced yesterday that it is updating “Dot Com Disclosures: Information about Online Advertising,” its guidance document that advises businesses on how federal advertising law applies to advertising and sales on the Internet. The current “Dot Com Disclosures” guidance is available here. The FTC announced that it is seeking public comment about how its guidance should be modified to reflect the dramatic changes in the online world since the “Dot Com Disclosures” guidance was first published in 2000. Comments are due by July 11, 2011.
In announcing the proposed revisions, the FTC noted that when the guidance was first released, “mobile marketing was just a vision, there was not an ‘App” economy, the use of ‘pop-up blockers’ was not widespread, and online social networking was nowhere as sophisticated or extensive as it is today.” The FTC is seeking comment on a number of issues, including how the guidance should be revised to address mobile marketing and affiliate marketing.
If you have any questions about the FTC’s announcement, please contact Jeffrey A. Greenbaum at (212) 826-5525 or jgreenbaum@fkks.com, Shelly Elimelekh at (212) 705-4876 or selimelekh@fkks.com, or any other member of the Frankfurt Kurnit Advertising Group.
Uncategorized | shkim | 
December 21, 2011 10:19 am 
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