Tag Archives: FTC

Companies to Pay Heavy Fine for Weight Loss Products

By Lawrence Weinstein and Russell Kostelak on March 1, 2016 Posted in Deceptive Trade Practices

When it comes to certain diet pills, perhaps the only things getting slimmer are the wallets of the companies that sell them. Those companies, including Sale Slash LLC, agreed to pay over $43 million in a settlement last month after the FTC alleged they violated provisions of the FTC Act and the CAN-SPAM Act. According … Continue Reading

FTC Issues Enforcement Policy Statement on Native Advertising in New Media

By Daniel Werb on January 19, 2016 Posted in Social Media

Proskauer’s New Media and Technology Law Blog recently provided a helpful summary of the FTC’s Enforcement Policy Statement on native advertising. Check it out here. *** Want to talk advertising? We welcome your questions, ideas, and thoughts on our posts. Email or call us at lweinstein@proskauer.com /212-969-3240 or akaplan@proskauer.com /212-969-3671. We are editors of Proskauer … Continue Reading

Punch to the Gut: Government Denied Contempt Ruling in Bayer Probiotic Case

By Alexander Kaplan and Jeff Warshafsky on November 9, 2015 Posted in Regulatory

Bayer recently avoided a contempt finding concerning its Phillips’ Colon Health (“PCH”) probiotics advertising. Bayer advertised PCH as “Promot[ing] Overall Digestive Health” and “Help[ing] Defend Against Occasional Constipation, Diarrhea, Gas and Bloating.” The Government contended Bayer violated a 2007 consent decree requiring Bayer to possess “competent and reliable scientific evidence” substantiating such claims. To support … Continue Reading

Procera AVH Marketers Can Forget About Claiming to Reverse Memory Loss

By Lawrence Weinstein and Sarah Sullivan on July 30, 2015 Posted in Deceptive Trade Practices, Regulatory

It turns out that there is not a magic pill capable of reversing the effects of aging on the human brain, including memory loss, or at least not one we can remember right now. The FTC recently reminded the marketers of Procera AVH, a dietary supplement that allegedly combats memory loss and cognitive decline, of … Continue Reading

L’Oréal Smooths Things Over With FTC, Reaches Proposed Settlement Regarding Anti-Aging Claims For Its Skin Care Products

By Lee Popkin on July 15, 2014 Posted in Deceptive Trade Practices, Labeling Claims, Regulatory

On June 30, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it had reached a proposed settlement with L’Oréal USA, Inc. related to the Commission’s investigation of anti-aging claims made in advertisements for Lancôme Génifique and L’Oréal Paris Youth Code products. In its complaint, the FTC asserted that L’Oréal falsely represented that the products in these two … Continue Reading

Federal Judge Trims Diet Supplement Maker’s Earnings by $40M and Orders Recall of Banned Labeling

By Jeff Warshafsky and Jennifer Yang on June 5, 2014 Posted in Deceptive Trade Practices, Labeling Claims, Regulatory

On May 14, a Georgia federal court dished out severe contempt sanctions against Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, its president and two others for violating a 2008 court order relating to the advertising and labeling of Hi-Tech’s “diet supplements.” In addition to ordering a recall, the court also ordered the Hi-Tech defendants to disgorge not only their profits … Continue Reading

Get That Thing Out of My Face(book)! – Canadian Woman Brings Class Action Against Facebook in Ontario for Private Message Scanning

By John Browning on May 5, 2014 Posted in Class Actions, Social Media

How private is private? This is the question at the heart of a putative class action recently brought against Facebook in Toronto. Plaintiff Lavinia Latham claims, on behalf of herself and up to 18-million similarly situated Canadians, that Facebook committed a number of privacy offenses by extracting information from users’ private messages without permission and using that … Continue Reading

Truth In Advertising Act of 2014 — Congress Considers Legislation Aimed At Curbing Use of Digitally-Altered Photos In Advertisements

By Rebecca Felsenthal and Victoria Loughery on April 15, 2014 Posted in Regulatory

The Truth in Advertising Act of 2014 (H.R. 4341), introduced on March 27th, would mandate that the FTC create appropriate regulations to reduce the use (in advertising for commercial products) of images that have been altered in a way that “materially change[s] the physical characteristics of the faces and bodies” of any persons depicted in … Continue Reading