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
NAD Addresses Math Problems in Counting Reviews
Function claimed that it had “over 110,000 5-star product reviews” for its hair care products, the majority of which come from its “shampoo and conditioner” category. A competitor filed an NAD challenge pointing out that the total number of 5-star reviews across all product categories was only 63,831. So how did Function get to 110,000?
FTC Closing Letter Addresses Management of Consumer Reviews
When the FTC decides not to pursue an investigation, it often issues a short closing letter to the company explaining why FTC staff decided not to recommend enforcement. The letters are just a few paragraphs long and don’t contain a lot of details, but if you read between the lines, you can often get some
New Court Decision Address Manipulation of Reviews
Because consumer reviews are so important in today’s marketplace, many companies go to great lengths to increase their number of favorable reviews. Sometimes, they go too far. We’ve written about FTC and NAD cases in which companies incentivized reviews without proper disclosures and even about cases in which companies solicited fake reviews. (Click here,
NAD Addresses When Companies may be Liable for Consumer Reviews
This is not another post about coronavirus claims, but we do need to start there.
Truvani makes a dietary supplement that was formerly called “Under the Weather.” The company’s webpage devoted to that supplement featured reviews from various users, including the following:
- Michael K. (Verified Buyer): “Very happy with the product, I feel BC so