This week, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office touted the release of draft regulations to prohibit hidden “junk fees,” enhance transparency in various transactions, and make it easy for consumers to cancel subscriptions. The office highlights that junk fees can make it difficult for consumers to comparison shop, harm honest business, and have a disproportionate impact on marginalized consumers. It also cites increases in automatically renewing contracts and trial offers that are more difficult to cancel than they are to enter into. AG Campbell will be using the rule mak ..read more

From the Land of Lincoln, we went east to the Granite State. We met with Attorney General John Formella and Brandon Garod, Senior Assistant Attorney General, to learn about the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General and the state’s priority of protecting seniors. Background of the Office The New Hampshire Attorney General (AG) is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the executive council. The AG oversees the Consumer Protection & Antitrust Bureau (the Bureau) which falls under the state’s Department of Justice. Similar to what we’ve heard from other states, AG Formella explaine ..read more

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola reformulated its Powerade beverage to include more electrolytes. In some ads, it boasted that the beverage now contained ​“50% more electrolytes vs. Gatorade Thirst Quencher.” One social media post featured a headline ​“Powerade vs. Gatorade Thirst Quencher” above a side-by-side comparison of the electrolyte and vitamin content of the two beverages. The caption read: ​“Don’t Underestimate our Electrolytes” followed by a flexed arm emoji. ? Although the claims about electrolyte content were literally true, Stokely-Van Camp – the maker of Gatorade – argued that the a ..read more

In our final installment of our NAAG 2023 Consumer Protection Fall Conference debriefing (click here for parts one and two), unsurprisingly, fake reviews and generative AI were the big topics that closed out the conference. Fake Online Reviews This panel was moderated by Victoria Butler, Consumer Chief of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, and Mike Wertheimer, Consumer Chief of the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office. Panelists included John D. Breyault, Vice President, Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud at the National Consumers League, Monica Hernandez, Senior Corporate Counse ..read more

Earlier this year, we examined how changes to the FTC’s Endorsement Guides might affect influencer campaigns and suggested that companies may want to monitor FTC actions in this area to see what types of conduct grab the FTC’s attention. Yesterday, we got some initial clues when the FTC announced that it had sent warning letters to two trade associations – the American Beverage Association and The Canadian Sugar Institute – and 12 health influencers over their posts. The letters start with a reminder that influencers must “clearly and conspicuously” disclose any “material connection” they have ..read more

Like we previously reported, reviews matter. The New York Attorney General (NY AG) announced a $100,000 settlement out of its Bureau of Internet and Technology with a Manhattan-based orthopedic doctor for manipulating patient reviews on multiple websites such as RateMDs.com, ZocDoc, Google, Yelp, Vitals, Adviise, Healthgrades, MD.com, and the Better Business Bureau. The doctor’s wife also settled separately but with no monetary penalties. According to the Assurance of Discontinuance, the doctor and his wife conducted a variety of schemes to both inflate positive reviews and suppress negative o ..read more

We return to NAAG’s 2023 Consumer Protection Fall Conference for “Advertising Psychology and Law Primer.” While it lived up to its name covering many basic advertising law concepts, the panel also covered specific perspectives from California on junk fees and other advertising principles that are valuable tips to help stay off their radar. This panel was moderated by Nick Akers, Senior Assistant Attorney general at the California Attorney General’s Office and Beth Blackston, Consumer Fraud Bureau, Chief of the Southern Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Panelists included Rafael ..read more

On November 7, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) 2023 Consumer Protection Fall Conference held its public day with a number of substantive and interesting discussions about the current state of consumer protection enforcement by the FTC and, of course, state AGs. We will be bringing you a series about the conference panels, each of which discusses a hot topic of enforcement for the coming year. First, Attorneys General Kwame Raoul of Illinois and John Formella of New Hampshire kicked off the day with a discussion on “Dark Practices Impacting Consumer Privacy,” focusing on da ..read more

This week, the FTC and Florida AG announced a settlement with Chargebacks911, a chargeback mitigation company that touted its ability to help companies respond to and reverse consumer credit card disputes. The FTC and Florida AG sued the company in April 2023, alleging that Chargebacks911 used deceptive techniques to contest chargebacks and lower clients’ chargeback rates. The chargeback mitigation practices specifically described in the complaint as unfair under Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Florida UDAP statute involve: Using inaccurate documentation to challenge chargeback requests. For ..read more

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a notice of proposed rulemaking that would allow the agency to supervise and conduct examinations of certain non-bank providers of digital wallets and payment apps. The move is intended to address perceived “regulatory arbitrage by ensuring large technology firms and other nonbank payments companies are subjected to appropriate oversight,” according to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. While the Bureau has always had enforcement authority over digital wallets and payment apps, the proposed rule would newly authorize the Bureau to “s ..read more