The Advertising Law Blog provides commentary and news on developing legal issues in advertising, promotional marketing, Internet, and privacy law. This blog is sponsored by the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions group at Olshan. The practice is geared to servicing the needs of the advertising, promotional marketing, and digital industries with a commitment to providing personal, efficient and effective legal service.
The State of Wisconsin announced that it was suing telephone-billing aggregator ILD Telecommunications, Inc. based on alleged cramming activities by its customer, ILD's customer Radical Persson, Inc., who marketed Internet services billed under the names Echurch Network and ILab Technologies. The state's lawsuit seeks refunds for all affected Wisconsin consumers, as well as penalties for the company's violations of Wisconsin law.
The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) announced its list of the Top 10 consumer complaints for 2005.
Direct marketers who intend to rely on fax advertisements must have an established business relationship with the recipient prior to sending the fax, as well as having received the recipient's fax number pursuant to that relationship.
Ckrush Digital Media Inc. launched "LiveMansion the Movie", the first feature film by an online community - starring and directed by its members.
E-mail marketing remains a hot topic for both legislators and law enforcement officials. One recent development involved an update to an existing anti-spam law in Florida.
On July 17, 2006, U.S. prosecutors announced that they had arrested David Carruthers, the CEO of BetOnSports, PLC at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. BetOnSports is a publicly traded widely advertised online gambling portal that owns a number of offshore Internet Sports books and casinos. BetOnSports counts U.S. bettors as the overwhelming majority of its customers. The federal government has taken the position that "commercial gambling across state and international borders is a crime."
On July 17, 2006, U.S. prosecutors announced that they had arrested David Carruthers, the CEO of BetOnSports, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Click fraud continues to present a growing problem for search engines and their advertisers, because Google, Yahoo and other web portals get paid each time someone clicks on advertising links displayed on a search engine result regardless as to whether a sale or legitimate lead is generated.
The DMA announced that yesterday that it was ending enrollments in its telephone preference service (TPS) The TPS was a laudable industry alternative - initiated way back in 1985 - to deal on an self-regulatory basis with persons who did not want to receive telemarketing calls.
Regulators and law enforcement officials are increasingly using a new tactic against allegedly false or deceptive marketing practices. Instead of challenging the marketers themselves, they are focusing enforcement efforts against the service providers and suppliers of the marketers.