Articles

09.27.18

New York, Oregon Actions Highlight State AGs’ Power to Police Dietary Supplements

State attorneys general (AGs) have the power to enforce state consumer protection laws, often referred to as “little FTC acts.” Patterned off Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, these laws vary in some detail from state to state, but generally adhere to the same ...


08.28.18

Cloudy With a Chance of Price Gouging

On July 28, 2018, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino and Napa counties due to the devastating effects of fires in the area. In response, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued an alert reminding all Californians that price gouging ...


06.18.18

Insights From State AG Coordinated Opioid Investigation

"In a slow but steady trickle of filings over the past 12 months, starting with Ohio, 23 state attorneys general have brought lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. While this is remarkable in its own right, even more noteworthy is that of the last six states to sue—all of which filed in ...


01.25.18

Potential Impacts on Telehealth From Net Neutrality Repeal

On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed the Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO), repealing the FCC’s 2015 “net neutrality” rules and shifting the responsibility for regulating the conduct of Internet service providers (ISPs) to the Federal ...


07.20.17

Native Americans End Trademark Dispute With Redskins

In light of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Matal v. Tam, a group of Native Americans agreed to drop their litigation against the Washington Redskins football team, ending a dispute that has lasted more than two decades.The case began in 1992 when a group of Native Americans brought a ...


07.07.17

FTC Updates COPPA Compliance Guidance

By Richard P. Lawson, Partner, Advertising, Marketing and MediaIn an effort to reflect developments in the marketplace, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced revised compliance guidelines for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the agency’s COPPA ...


06.28.17

Q&A: D.C. Attorney General on Consumer Protection Efforts

State attorney general's offices have become increasingly active in enforcing consumer protection issues. I recently spoke to Karl Racine, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, on his office's priorities related to consumer protection. Following is a transcript of that ...


06.22.17

California Appellate Panel Affirms $6.8M Penalty Against Overstock

By Richard P. Lawson, Partner, Advertising, Marketing and MediaIn affirming a $6.8 million penalty against Overstock.com for deceptive pricing, a California appellate panel found that the amount was not excessive.District attorneys in eight counties filed suit in 2010, claiming that the Internet ...


06.19.17

AI, IoT and Consumer Privacy

It has been estimated that 80 percent of the world’s data has been created in the past two years, and by all reasonable measures, we are only just getting started. Already, 2.5 billion gigabytes of data are generated per day. To give some context, a review of one gigabyte of emails is ...


06.08.17

Senator to FTC: Are Kids Safe With Smart Toys?

By Richard P. Lawson, Partner, Advertising, Marketing and MediaFollowing up on a previous letter, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) sent a second missive to the Federal Trade Commission asking about the agency’s efforts to protect children’s privacy with respect to so-called smart ...