As many readers of this blog know, “keyword advertising” is an online marketing tool whereby advertisers purchase a keyword or phrase from internet search engine providers, especially Google. When a consumer searches for a term that has been purchased, the search returns sponsored links, typically marked as “Ad,” “Sponsored” or “Promoted,” as the top results, above even those results generated by the search engine’s algorithm.
New Jersey Supreme Court Sides with Aéropostale in Consumer Class Action
In a significant legal victory for New Jersey retailers, that state’s Supreme Court has ruled in a class-action lawsuit that advertising illusory discounts and phantom former prices does not necessarily cause consumers to sustain an ascertainable loss, and therefore dismissed the lawsuit despite the state’s generally very pro-consumer protection statute, the Consumer Fraud Act (“CFA”).
Illegal offer no longer enough: a plaintiff must suffer some form of injury to recover under the statute