In early July the Staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued new guidance on how to approach Made in USA claims. The agency says the new guidance will help businesses comply with its “all or virtually all” standard, including how to make disclosures qualifying a Made in USA claim. The new guidance is “Staff’s” view, which means it is not formally approved by the commissioners.   Under an Enforcement Policy Statement issued in 1997, the FTC stated that to make a Made in USA claim, “all or virtually all” of a product had to be made in the USA. In 2021, the FTC finalized the Made in ..read more

These days, it seems like there are three guarantees in life—death, taxes, and monumental Supreme Court administrative law opinions in the summer. As you’ve probably heard by now, the trend continues this year, including perhaps the largest fireworks display possible (in the administrative law context, that is). If for some reason you’ve been ignoring the news, just recently in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court overruled the Chevron decision and held that courts need not defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute; rather, courts must exercise independent judgment wh ..read more

With the election cycle heating up as we approach the dog days of summer, so too is the Federal Communications Commission’s scrutiny of the use of AI technology in fraudulent robocalls. As we previously discussed, the FCC has already doled out fines for the use of deepfakes in political robocalls. Now, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has ratcheted up the scrutiny of nine telecom companies, asking them to explain the measures they are taking to prevent deepfake robocalls. Specifically, the FCC asks the carriers to describe the steps taken to authenticate calls in line with the STIR/SHAKEN re ..read more

On May 20, Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz signed the state’s so-called junk fee bill into law. The law, similar to a proposed Federal Trade Commission rule and laws in other states, requires businesses to include all mandatory fees or surcharges in the advertised price. Mandatory fees include: A fee or surcharge that must be paid to complete the transaction A fee or surcharge that is not “reasonably avoidable” by the consumer A fee or surcharge that one would expect to pay when purchasing the goods or services advertised Mandatory fees do not include taxes imposed by a government entity, such as a ..read more

In a pair of Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a collective $8 million in fines against telecommunications company Lingo Telecom and political consultant Steven Kramer. Robocalls, Generative AI, and Deepfakes The FCC alleges Kramer violated the Truth in Caller ID Act. According to the FCC, two days before the New Hampshire 2024 presidential primary election, Kramer orchestrated a campaign of illegally spoofed and malicious robocalls that carried a deepfake audio recording of President Biden’s cloned voice telling pr ..read more

One of the questions that remains uncertain among looming federal and state “junk fee” and “drip pricing” bans in 2024 concerns the impact these rules will have on credit card surcharges. Surcharges are added to sale transactions by some retailers when the buyer uses a credit card to make a purchase. Is this a mandatory fee that must be incorporated in the total price under the new laws? Or does the consumer’s choice to use a credit card to pay make the convenience of paying by credit card an optional service or feature that need not be included in the advertised price? We may need to wait for ..read more

Late last week, the California attorney general released Frequently Asked Questions regarding California’s “Honest Pricing Law” or “Hidden Fees Statute,” which will take effect July 1, 2024. The law is anticipated to have a sizeable impact, given its breadth, and will vastly change how businesses disclose the price of their goods and services to the public. When “advertising, displaying, or offering” a price, the law requires businesses to include all required fees and charges other than certain government taxes and shipping costs. The Advertised Price Is a Single Price, No Exceptions The FAQs ..read more

Last month, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act of 2024—known as the “ELVIS Act”—making Tennessee the first state to address head-on potential misuses of artificial intelligence (AI) related to an individual’s voice. The law prohibits individuals from using AI to generate and distribute replicas of another’s voice or image without their prior consent. Many prominent members of the music and entertainment community have identified Tennessee’s law as an important step forward for the protection of artists’ (and others’) voice and likenes ..read more

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agreed this week to cooperate and coordinate consumer protection efforts in enforcing the FCC’s reinstated “net neutrality” rules. The agencies stated in a Memorandum of Understanding that they will share legal, technical, and investigative expertise and experience in enforcing the rules. The reinstated rules, adopted on April 25, formally reclassify internet service providers’ broadband services as “Telecommunications Services” under Title II of the Communications Act, rather than as a less-regul ..read more

Losing market share to a competitor touting its superiority makes your job harder and is frustrating, particularly when those claims are unsubstantiated or deceptive. You may want to counter your competitor’s claims with comparative advertising of your own or take legal action to make them stop. Before taking action, a company should carefully weigh its options, because the risks may outweigh the benefits, explained partners Shahin Rothermel, Claudia Lewis, and Ari Rothman in a recent webinar. Six Options for Challenging Competitors Want to challenge your competitors’ claims? Consider these si ..read more