The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA” or the “Act”) was enacted principally to bolster consumer privacy by addressing issues such as unsolicited facsimiles, pre-recorded telemarketing calls to residences, and autodialed and pre-recorded calls to cellular telephones. The Act established rules regarding the types of consent required to make specific types of telephone calls. … Read more
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) posted on their site that they have sent out letters to over 20 search engines regarding some updates to their guidelines regarding the way search engines display ads in the results. Since 2002 the FTC has required search engines to label paid results, or ads, in a way which … Read more
Last June, I stressed that while the law surrounding enforceable covenants not to compete varies from state-to-state, there are a few more general nationwide consistencies including, for example, reasonable limitations as to geography, scope and time. You can see that article here. This article is intended to cover an increasingly common and specific situation within … Read more
Two interesting rulings out of federal case in the US District Court of Utah this past week inn the case of Zoobuh Inc. v. Better Broadcasting LLC, D. Utah, No. 2:11-cv-00516. Brought on by Safe-Email company for Children, Zoobuh, these rulings may have significant impact in how some marketers do business. The first part of the … Read more
From Wired– ON FEBRUARY 25, 2009, a then 34-year-old career con man named David Anthony Whitaker left the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and slid into the backseat of an unmarked government car. He was dressed in traditional prison garb—khaki pants, brown shirt, handcuffs, leg irons. A federal agent sat beside him. A … Read more
Performance Marketing Insider has been covering the case of Shawn Hogan and Brian Dunning since the case was first launched a few years ago. Every step of the way his supporters have come out saying that he wasn’t guilty, that he was set up. Now, as you may have read in PMI, both Shawn Hogan … Read more
Automated traffic through bots has been a part of the Internet almost since its inception, but until recently mobile sites were largely left alone. A new report from Solve Media found that approximately 29% of traffic to mobile sites was considered suspicious and 14% of it was confirmed to be coming from bots. This is … Read more
If you are looking for about anything illegal, the internet has made it much easier to find. While Silk Road, a service that can only be found through a complex system of Tor Servers, was the first of it’s kind many other services have popped up. Services like “BuyItNow” and “RAMP” are trying to compete … Read more
The FTC has been in the news lately in the performance marketing industry, but it turns out there is one industry that is really receiving a lot of complaints: the dating industry. According to a recent Freedom of Information Act request, it seems that in the last few years thousands and consumers have received thousands … Read more
Updates to the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance document, Dot Com Disclosures, have been anticipated for almost two years. After receiving substantial written feedback and in response to the increasing use of both social media-based marketing and smartphones with smaller screens, the Commission has now issued updated guidelines entitled .Com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in … Read more
There are many conceivable ways to avoid a federal or state regulator’s spotlight. What is somewhat confounding is that so many seem utterly disinterested in employing any of them. Deliberate compliance-monitoring is one way to avoid undesired attention from regulators. Actually, it is THE way. Each word in your creative content, in context, and the … Read more
On March 4th, 2013, in the matter of Bank v. American Home Shield Corp., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that California’s law barring commercial email advertisements that contain materially deceptive subject lines applies to parties who advertise in the emails, not just those who send them. In addressing … Read more
Well, it seems that ancient history has come back to attack Google, probably only because Google has reached the top as far as digital marketing goes. TechCrunch recently published an article detailing a new controversy, or rather an attempt at creating controversy regarding Google’s Gmail marketing tactics. It is, as some would expect, Microsoft that … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission and numerous state Attorneys’ General continue to actively police deceptive health-related marketing claims, including those relating to weight loss products. Marketers in the know evaluate products and related data first, and then create advertising copy to reflect what the product has actually been proven to do. Make no mistake about it, there … Read more