ftc – Page 2 – Duane Morris TechLaw

July 2, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

FTC Updates Advertising Disclosure Guidance For Search Engines

Back at the dawn of the commercial Internet era in 2002, the Federal Trade Commission provided guidance to search engines in terms of differentiating between true search results and advertisements. However, over the past 11 years, the FTC has determined that search results and advertisements have become less distinguishable from each other.

Accordingly, in correspondence recently sent to major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and AOL, the FTC has updated its 2002 guidance.

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March 19, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

FTC Issues New Advertising Guidelines For The Mobile Age

It has been ages in Internet time since the FTC provided advertising guidance in its “Dot Com Disclosures” release in 2000. Thirteen years later, cyber eons really, the FTC now has come up with new guidance in its “.com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising.”

This new guidance recognizes the exponentially increasing use of mobile devices and the consequences of their limited screen size, as well as the growing prevalence of social media advertising.

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January 8, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Google, FTC Reach Agreement On Competition Issues

The FTC has issued a press release claiming that it has reached an agreement with Google to resolve competition concerns in the markets for smartphones, games, tablets, and online search.

The FTC states that pursuant to a settlement agreement, Google will comply with earlier promises to permit access to competitors on reasonable terms to patents on certain popular devices. And as a result of an independent commitment letter, Google will provide greater flexibility to online advertisers to manage advertisement campaigns on Google’s AdWords platform and to make sure not to misappropriate content from vertical sites that target specific categories (such as travel) for offerings.

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August 15, 2012September 12, 2014 by Sandra A. Jeskie

FTC Imposes a Record $22.5 Million Civil Penalty on Google for Privacy Misrepresentations

On August 9, 2012, the FTC announced that Google agreed to pay a record $22.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that it made misrepresentations to users of the Safari Internet browser when Google represented that it would not place cookies or serve targeted ads to those users. In doing so, Google violated an earlier privacy settlement it had with the FTC.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said “[t]he record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order. . . “[n]o matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”

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December 7, 2011July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Fake News Websites Touting Weight Loss Shut Down By FTC

The FTC is intent on stopping online deceptive health claims. It has been especially interested in shutting down sites that make false and misleading dietary claims.

As part of its crackdown efforts, the FTC, along with the State of Connecticut, filed a complaint that sought to stop a specific operation based on Connecticut.

And the FTC has now announced that the parties have agreed to a court order that temporarily halts the allegedly illegal conduct.

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September 30, 2011July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Protecting Personal Information In Borders Bankruptcy Proceeding

Borders has long collected personal information from customers and promised that such information would not be disclosed without consent. In light of that and Borders’ current bankruptcy proceedings, the FTC has sent a letter to the consumer privacy ombudsman overseeing the Borders bankruptcy that seeks the protection of customer personal information.

The FTC’s letter appears prompted by its understanding that customer personal information held by Borders is scheduled to be auctioned and thereafter there will be a sale hearing.

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