Have you heard the old saying, "No good deed
goes unpunished?" As three companies recently found out, it's
possible to find yourself in legal hot water even when you give
something away to consumers.
According to recent Federal Trade Commission consent orders, two companies who sell computer accessories or supplies violated the law by failing to deliver cash rebates to consumers on time. Both companies promised to send rebates out within 12 weeks of receiving completed rebate requests. But in many instances the checks were late by a month or even longer.
Most direct marketers know about the FTC's Mail and Telephone Order Rule. In a nutshell, that rule requires direct marketers to ship orders within the time advertised (or, if no delivery date is given, within 30 days of the receipt of an order), or send notices stating a revised shipping date and allowing consumers who don't want to wait to cancel their orders.
What marketers may not realize is that the same principle applies to free merchandise offers, rebates and so on. Even when you're giving your customers something for nothing, you've got to deliver on a timely basis-usually within 30 days, unless you specify a longer waiting time up front.
A blow for canned-tuna fans
A third company, Bumble Bee Seafoods, also signed a consent order to settle allegations that one of its discount coupon campaigns was deceptive. According to the FTC, the labels on a particular kind of Bumble Bee canned tuna read "75 Cents Off Neat Purchase-Details Inside Label."
What the FTC objected to was that this coupon was good only if you bought at least five cans of tuna. Of course, the outer label didn't say anything about how many cans you had to buy to get 75 cents off-and it did indicate that there might be some fine print on the inside of the label.
Bumble Bee was taking a chance by requiring customers to buy five cans without telling them so up front. And no doubt a number of consumers with nothing better to do wrote or called to complain. Fortunately for them, the FTC staff was able to take some time off from its mega-billion-dollar merger reviews and hard-core fraud prosecutions to strike a blow for canned-tuna fans.
The lone federal cybercop
The FTC recently marked the end of the millennium by publishing a report titled "Protecting Consumers Online: The FTC's First Five Years." Not surprisingly, that report praised the FTC's online consumer protection efforts to date, concluding that the agency is a "cornerstone for consumer confidence in the e-marketplace."
In its first five years as the chief federal cop on the cyberspace beat, the FTC has brought just over 100 Internet-related cases against nearly 300 corporate and individual defendants. When you think of the zillions of Web sites that have inhabited the Web since 1995, that is not a lot of cases. For every fraudulent or deceptive Web site shut down as a result of FTC action, hundreds-maybe thousands-are still doing business.
The FTC is proud of its "Consumer Sentinel" database of consumer fraud complaints, which is used by some 200 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, and its new high-tech Internet lab. But law enforcement agencies can never clean up the Internet all by themselves-they need help in the form of self-regulatory efforts by honest electronic retailers and better-educated consumers.
Law enforcement agencies can never clean up the Internet all by themselves-they need help in the form of self-regulatory efforts by honest electronic retailers and better-educated consumers.
According to recent Federal Trade Commission consent orders, two companies who sell computer accessories or supplies violated the law by failing to deliver cash rebates to consumers on time. Both companies promised to send rebates out within 12 weeks of receiving completed rebate requests. But in many instances the checks were late by a month or even longer.
Most direct marketers know about the FTC's Mail and Telephone Order Rule. In a nutshell, that rule requires direct marketers to ship orders within the time advertised (or, if no delivery date is given, within 30 days of the receipt of an order), or send notices stating a revised shipping date and allowing consumers who don't want to wait to cancel their orders.
What marketers may not realize is that the same principle applies to free merchandise offers, rebates and so on. Even when you're giving your customers something for nothing, you've got to deliver on a timely basis-usually within 30 days, unless you specify a longer waiting time up front.
A blow for canned-tuna fans
A third company, Bumble Bee Seafoods, also signed a consent order to settle allegations that one of its discount coupon campaigns was deceptive. According to the FTC, the labels on a particular kind of Bumble Bee canned tuna read "75 Cents Off Neat Purchase-Details Inside Label."
What the FTC objected to was that this coupon was good only if you bought at least five cans of tuna. Of course, the outer label didn't say anything about how many cans you had to buy to get 75 cents off-and it did indicate that there might be some fine print on the inside of the label.
Bumble Bee was taking a chance by requiring customers to buy five cans without telling them so up front. And no doubt a number of consumers with nothing better to do wrote or called to complain. Fortunately for them, the FTC staff was able to take some time off from its mega-billion-dollar merger reviews and hard-core fraud prosecutions to strike a blow for canned-tuna fans.
The lone federal cybercop
The FTC recently marked the end of the millennium by publishing a report titled "Protecting Consumers Online: The FTC's First Five Years." Not surprisingly, that report praised the FTC's online consumer protection efforts to date, concluding that the agency is a "cornerstone for consumer confidence in the e-marketplace."
In its first five years as the chief federal cop on the cyberspace beat, the FTC has brought just over 100 Internet-related cases against nearly 300 corporate and individual defendants. When you think of the zillions of Web sites that have inhabited the Web since 1995, that is not a lot of cases. For every fraudulent or deceptive Web site shut down as a result of FTC action, hundreds-maybe thousands-are still doing business.
The FTC is proud of its "Consumer Sentinel" database of consumer fraud complaints, which is used by some 200 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, and its new high-tech Internet lab. But law enforcement agencies can never clean up the Internet all by themselves-they need help in the form of self-regulatory efforts by honest electronic retailers and better-educated consumers.
Law enforcement agencies can never clean up the Internet all by themselves-they need help in the form of self-regulatory efforts by honest electronic retailers and better-educated consumers.