Enjoy the Holiday! Next Thursday, we will be busy whipping up a secret family recipe instead of a new edition of Advertising Law News and Analysis. We look forward to returning to your inbox on November 30, and we wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. |
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Cordray to Leave CFPB In an internal email to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) staff yesterday, Director Richard Cordray announced that he will step down by the end of the month. Although he announced no plans in the email, many speculate that Cordray might be planning to run for governor of Ohio. In a client alert, Venable attorneys Andrew Arculin, Allyson Baker, Jonathan Pompan, Gerry Sachs, Meredith Boylan, Alexandra Megaris, Peter Frechette, Katherine Lamberth discuss what may happen next at the CFPB. |
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In Advertising – as in Life – It Pays to Keep Your Word In September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced what may be remembered as the most ironic enforcement action of 2017, write Venable attorneys Len Gordon and Shahin Rothermel in the November edition of the DRMA Voice. The Commission alleged that the Pact mobile app, which claimed to pay consumers for keeping their fitness promises and charge consumers who missed their goals, failed to honor its promises to consumers. The final order in the case gives marketers more than a million reasons to honor the promises they make to consumers. |
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Contact Lens Ad Agreements Leave FTC Seeing Red Agreements between competitors should be scary things that you enter into rarely and always with antitrust counsel involved, write Venable partners Rob Davis and Len Gordon in a recent blog post. They point to the FTC's recent challenge to agreements that 1-800 Contacts entered into with its competitors, concerning how the companies would advertise. The case, Davis and Gordon write, provides useful insight into the nuts and bolts of Internet advertising, as well as important reminders about how not to deal with competitors. |
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FTC Cleans Up "Free" B2B Marketing The FTC is no stranger to cracking down on businesses offering so-called free products, only to charge the consumer for them later on. In a recent blog post, Venable partner Len Gordon writes that an FTC complaint filed last month shows that the Commission's interest in stamping out deceptive "free trial" claims extends beyond direct-to-consumer marketing. |
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From the Tool Kit: Calling out the value of your product, particularly if it is available via a special deal, is often critical to closing sales to deal-savvy consumers. In the most recent edition of the firm's Advertising Law Tool Kit, Venable partner Amy Mudge discusses how marketers should, and should not, make sale, discount, and free claims. |