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Business Blog

Patent (s)pending

Lesley Fair
If necessity is the mother of invention, bogus invention promotion companies are the sketchy brothers-in-law. That’s why inventors who think they may have that Next Big Thing should investigate
Business Blog

Truth in app-vertising

Lesley Fair
Here’s how AcneApp and Acne Pwner were supposed to work. Buyers downloaded the apps from their favorite app store. After selecting a light — blue to fight bacteria or red to heal, some ads said — they
Business Blog

Relief pitching?

Lesley Fair
“You can settle your credit card debt for pennies on the dollar without filing for bankruptcy.†For people struggling to stay afloat, Debt Relief USA’s national TV ads must have seemed like a lifeline
Business Blog

FTC announces first mobile app case

Lesley Fair
There are some combinations that raise immediate compliance issues for responsible businesses — and kids’ privacy and mobile applications are among them. A settlement announced by the FTC — the agency
Business Blog

Swish Marketing decision nets consumers $4.8 million

Lesley Fair
Thinking about using a pre-checked box to obligate buyers in an online transaction? Maybe you’re considering a negative option arrangement without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the details of
Business Blog

$108 million for homeowners in distress

Lesley Fair
Homeowners in financial trouble aren’t getting a lot of great news these days. But 450,177 of them will be getting a check in the mail that represents their share of the FTC’s $108 million settlement
Business Blog

Candid spamera

Lesley Fair
Say “spam†and most business executives think of annoying messages that litter their IN box. But the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Rule cover a much broader range of commercial email. Yes, that
Business Blog

Thigh maintenance

Lesley Fair
A skin cream that can reduce body size. Are historians sure that wasn’t what Ponce de Leon was seeking? It’s certainly what buyers are looking for, if ads are any indication. But claims like that have
Business Blog

Double duty?

Lesley Fair
Sometimes it’s great to put stuff to more than one use. Think the versatile Swiss Army knife, the iconic Little Black Dress, or the typical elementary school “cafetorium†where kids can eat lunch
Business Blog

Around the world in shady ways

Lesley Fair
Yes, it’s a global marketplace, but geography still matters. Misrepresentations about where a company is based can have significant implications for buyers. That’s the message of an FTC settlement
Business Blog

Free means free, says the FTC

Lesley Fair
You can swim freestyle. You can work freelance. And there are those among us who still hold up lighters and yell “Play Free Bird.†But for marketers, one thing you can’t do is advertise a product as
Business Blog

Looking out for unauthorized access

Lesley Fair
With a corporate name like Lookout, it pays to — well — look out. Unfortunately, according to the FTC’s complaint against Lookout Services, Inc., the company’s questionable security practices left the
Business Blog

Nitro in the trunk?

Lesley Fair
The French movie classic “The Wages of Fear†— remade in 1977 as “The Sorcerer†by American director William Friedkin — was a taut thriller about a team of toughs transporting a payload of volatile
Business Blog

Won't get fauxed again

Lesley Fair
If you haven’t seen the ads, you’ve probably been too busy listening to eight-tracks and playing Pong because billions — with a capital B — have been served up online. They look like news
Business Blog

Cleaning up ad claims

Lesley Fair
Science, studies, and statistics. There’s a reason advertisers feature them so prominently. When used accurately, they can be powerful tools for distinguishing your product from the competitors. But
Business Blog

The FTC's settlement with Google: Part 4

Lesley Fair
Business practices at odds with promises in the company’s privacy policy. The failure to disclose adequately that the contacts with whom users emailed and chatted the most would become public by
Business Blog

The FTC's settlement with Google: Part 3

Lesley Fair
As any business knows, it is indeed a small world after all. And the FTC’s recent settlement with Google related to the launch of its Google Buzz social network demonstrates why it’s important for