Advertising Law Blog

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, was quoted in a Corporate Counsel article (subscription required) on the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the Biden administration had likely violated the First Amendment for “coercing” social media platforms to take down “disfavored” content from their sites that it deemed to be misinformation about topics such as COVID-19 or the 2020 elections.

Arby’s roast beef accused of being less plentiful, too well done compared to ads

For the past few years, Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. touts its fast-food chain with the slogan, “We have the meats.” Now, a class-action lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York alleges otherwise. Plaintiff Joseph Alongis accuses Arby's of engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices by using misleading photographs of sandwiches in its advertising. According to Alongis, Arby's customers receive roast beef and brisket sandwiches with significantly less meat than the amount depicted in advertisements.

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan’s Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, and associate Morgan Spina will present a webinar on myLawCLE entitled “The Nuts and Bolts of Structuring and Promoting a Lawful Sweepstakes,” on September 27, 2023, from 3-4 p.m. (EST). In this CLE webinar, Andy and Morgan provide an introduction to sweepstakes law, covering the key legal areas of concern that arise in structuring a sweepstakes, including lottery law and gambling concerns and how to address them. Topics they will discuss include why bespoke rules are important and key provisions that should be incorporated when preparing a sweepstakes, as well as how to promote a sweepstakes on Instagram, Tik Tok and other social media platforms.

You can register for this CLE webinar here.

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, and Jeremy King, Chair of Olshan’s Insurance Coverage Practice, published an article in Bloomberg Law (subscription required) entitled “Social Media Influencers Must Weigh Liability Insurance Options.” In the article, the authors warn that certain promotional behaviors undertaken by social media influencers could potentially expose brands to legal liabilities. Accordingly, many brands require influencers to purchase ...

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, will serve as co-moderator on the panel “Distinct Politics –Politicians Using Music, Names, Signs and Logos” as part of the International Bar Association’s 2023 Annual Conference in Paris from October 29 – November 3, 2023, the leading conference for legal professionals worldwide to meet, share knowledge, build contacts and develop business. The panel will address how political parties and politicians distinguish ...

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, published an article in Bloomberg Law (subscription required) on how the launch of the new social media app Threads may feature some of the same pitfalls for brands, though it means to offer a “less toxic” alternative to Twitter. Accordingly, it is incumbent upon brands to remain hyper-cognizant of the spaces in which they advertise, including on this new platform from Facebook parent company Meta. “By combining the interactivity ...

Alleged “dark patterns” now in play in at least four separate actions

Last year, this blog reported about Dorobiala v. Amazon.com, a private class action pending in federal court in the Western District of Washington against Amazon over the "dark patterns” Amazon used to hamper consumers from canceling their subscriptions to the Amazon Prime program. As described in a recent blog post, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) upped the ante in June by filing suit against Amazon in the same court.

Meanwhile, not only is Dorobiala is still pending, there are at least two other ...

Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, will speak on the panel “Food Marketing, Advertising and Promotion Essentials: Ensuring Claims Compliancy and Meeting Substantiation Standards Relative to Health, Nutrition, Structure and Function” as part of ACI’s Food Law and Regulation Boot Camp virtual conference on July 19, 2023, at 1:45pm (CT). The panel will explore the relationship between food product labels and advertising and promotion, how to distinguish ...

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”), asserting that the online retail giant “knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service.” Specifically, the FTC alleges that Amazon has used “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions, and made it incredibly difficult for consumers to cancel those subscriptions.

The complaint, filed in the District Court for the Western District of Washington on June 21, 2023, is ...

For late-shipped goods, Court deducts the value of benefits received by consumers