The FTC’s Proposed Rule Banning Deceptive Reviews and Testimonials
Negative Online Reviews and Reputation Management: Tips for Health Care Practices and Providers
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Advertising & Customer Engagement in the Digital Age - Customer Reviews and Response
How to Find the Identity of an Anonymous Author Online
II-36- Holiday Party Tips, the 2018/2019 Federal Regulatory Agenda, and Noteworthy Cases On Suing and Being Sued
With the first quarter of 2024 in full swing, it is a good time for brands to revisit marketing compliance strategies to minimize the risk of potential class actions, regulatory enforcement actions, and competitor challenges....more
A lot of ink has been spilled on many of the pending Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consumer protection rulemakings – commercial surveillance, subscription services and earnings claims, to name a few. But the rulemaking on...more
Michael Ostheimer, a senior staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), joined Holland & Knight for a recent webinar presentation on social media advertising and marketing practices. This Holland & Knight alert...more
On February 16, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an enforcement action against The Bountiful Company (Bountiful) for a practice the FTC dubbed “review hijacking.” Bountiful, a vitamin and supplement company,...more
On October 20, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new proposed rule intended to regulate unfair review and endorsement practices in digital marketing. The proposed rule would address several types of practices...more
In January, we posted that Fashion Nova had agreed to settle an FTC complaint alleging that the company’s practice of suppressing negative reviews on its site “deprives consumers of potentially useful information and...more
Last week, we wrote about the FTC’s first case involving a company’s failure to post negative reviews. Just a few days later, the FTC reached a $3.5 million settlement with Hubble Contacts. Although much of the FTC’s...more
Why You Should Attend: Lucian Pera provides a wide-ranging, thorough review of the most important developments over the last year in legal ethics, the law of lawyering, and attorney-client privilege. In the one-hour...more
Given the ever-expanding importance of influencer endorsements and positive online reviews, it is no surprise that fraud in this sector is endemic. However, in a welcome development for established brands, the Federal Trade...more
No business likes to receive bad reviews on Yelp® or anywhere else in social media. When they do, some feel the need to respond to clarify or rebut the reviews, but they must do so carefully....more
On October 29, 2018, a San Francisco federal jury unanimously found that a Silicon Valley tech company did not commit unlawful retaliation by firing a transgender employee who accused the company of discrimination in a...more
In a closely watched decision with significant ramifications for online speech, earlier this week, the California Supreme Court struck down an injunction requiring Yelp, a popular online consumer review platform, to remove...more
In a long-awaited decision, the California Supreme Court ruled this week that Yelp cannot be forced to remove a review posted on its website. Hassell v. Bird, 2018 WL 3213933 (Cal. Sup. Ct. July 2, 2018). Both the superior...more
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a securities fraud claim alleging that Yelp fraudulently inflated its stock price by misleading investors about its practices concerning the business...more
The situation is a familiar one. Disgruntled current or former employees leave negative and harmful comments about their employer on online workplace review websites such as glassdoor.com or vault.com, or on customer review...more
We have discussed here before new federal legislative protections that are in place to give consumers wide latitude to post online reviews of businesses, whether they be good or bad. A recent decision of the Appellate...more
Hospitality industry stakeholders who host sites for online reviews or rely on review sites such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon, or Oyster, may take comfort in the recent Ninth Circuit decision regarding the liability of...more
In a world where the lines between employees and volunteers/interns are becoming increasingly blurred, it is nice to see at least one court easily dispense with a wage and hour lawsuit. On August 13, 2015, a federal judge...more
Earlier this year, AmeriFreight, a Georgia-based auto shipment broker, settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that the company posted customer reviews on its website while failing to disclose that it had...more
The FTC has approved the final order in its February complaint against AmeriFreight for failing to disclose that it compensated consumers for their online reviews. Coordinated and paid advertising campaigns that do not...more
Virginia’s highest court recently held that Yelp could not be forced to turn over the identities of anonymous online reviewers that a Virginia carpet-cleaning owner claimed tarnished his business....more
While courts may not officially be in the business of ghostbusting, a district court in California recently offered some support to a blender manufacturer apparently haunted by a phantom reviewer. The court found that...more
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Lindsay Gellman on a new app by Collectively that allows users to post anonymous reviews of and complaints about their employers. The app is cheekily called...more
On September 9, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2365, popularly referred to as the “Yelp” bill. The new law, codified at California Civil Code section 1670.8, will prohibit the use of “non-disparagement” clauses...more
As we predicted in prior blog posts, the Federal Trade Commission has begun its vigorous enforcement of the Amended COPPA Rule. And one of the players is not a child-related site, so read on. The Commission just announced ...more