We have previously discussed the emphasis that the FTC has put on fake reviews throughout 2022, with proposed updates to the Endorsement Guides and a proposed rule to combat fake reviews in addition to enforcement efforts. State Attorneys General continue to also make fake reviews a top priority. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson closed out
FTC Explores New Rule to Combat Fake Reviews
The FTC has made it a priority to combat fake and misleading reviews. For example, just this year alone, the FTC announced a settlement with a retailer over its failure to post negative reviews, announced a settlement with another retailer over its failure to disclose that reviews were incentivized, partnered with six states to file
NAD (Still) Doesn’t Trust Trustpilot Reviews
If a review site ranks your product as the top in a category, can you advertise that you’re “number 1” in that category? The answer may not be as simple as it seems, and two NAD cases – one from three years ago and one from last month – demonstrate why companies can’t simply rely
FTC and Six States Take Action Against Fake Reviews and Claims
The FTC and six states just announced that they had filed a lawsuit against Roomster – a platform through which people can find rooms and roommates – along with its owners, alleging that they had “inundated the internet with tens of thousands of fake positive reviews to bolster their false claims that properties listed on
Fashion Nova Sued Over Failure to Post Negative Reviews
In January, we posted that Fashion Nova had agreed to settle an FTC complaint alleging that the company’s practice of suppressing negative reviews on its site “deprives consumers of potentially useful information and artificially inflates the product’s average star rating” in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act. According the FTC’s complaint, the company
Lather, Rinse, Review, Repeat – NAD Issues New Decision on Haircare Reviews
Last year, Prose – a company that makes customized haircare products – brought an NAD challenge against a competitor, Function, over Function’s claims that it had over 110,000 5-star product reviews. Shortly after that, Function filed a challenge against Prose over Prose’s claims that it had over 192,000 5-star product reviews. (You can read about
FTC Continues to Focus on Incentivized Reviews
Last week, we wrote about the FTC’s first case involving a company’s failure to post negative reviews. Just a few days later, the FTC reached a $3.5 million settlement with Hubble Contacts. Although much of the FTC’s complaint in the Hubble case alleges violations of the Contact Lens Rule, the FTC also alleged that Hubble
FTC Settles with Company Over Failure to Post Negative Reviews
Companies often ask us whether they can highlight positive reviews without mentioning negative ones. The good news is that there are ways to do that, but when the conversation veers from highlighting positive reviews to suppressing negative ones, things get trickier. This afternoon, the FTC announced its first case involving a company’s failure to post
NAD Frowns on Byte’s Incentivized Reviews
As advertisers wait to see what the FTC will do after sending 700 warning letters related to influencers and incentivized reviews, the NAD has been resolving disputes on similar issues. Yesterday, NAD announced a new decision involving incentivized reviews. Although the decision is consistent with previous cases in this area, there are some nuances worth
NAD Addresses Math Problems in Counting Reviews (Again)
Earlier this year, Prose – a company that makes customized haircare products – brought an NAD challenge against Function – a competitor in the same business – over Function’s claims that it had over 110,000 5-star product reviews. We posted about that decision in March. This week, NAD announced a decision in a challenge