In light of concerns associated with attempts to use personal data to track the spread of COVID-19, a group of Republican Senators, led by Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, introduced the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act of 2020 today.
The bill imposes specific requirements on entities seeking to process precise geolocation data, proximity data, persistent
The FTC and FCC have taken a number of actions to stem unlawful robocalls generally and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to stem harmful and deceptive calls that seek to exploit the COVID-19 crisis. Even amid the backdrop of their long-standing commitment, the agencies’ most recent action stands out as an aggressive new approach to unlawful
Few businesses are immune from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but among those that have been hit the hardest are business involved with sports, concerts, performances, and other live events. According to StubHub, more than 23,000 events have been canceled, rescheduled, or postponed over the past few weeks in the US alone.
As
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have far-reaching effects on businesses and consumers everywhere. While many states are taking broadly consistent approaches on certain issues (e.g., price gouging, non-essential business closures), one area where we’ve seen significant divergence involves regulation of collection efforts – both by first party creditors and debt collectors. In
Data is helping governments, researchers, and companies across the world track the spread of the novel coronavirus, monitor cases and outcomes of COVID-19, and devise ways to halt the virus’s spread. As part of these efforts, raw data, software tools, data visualizations, and other efforts are providing the public and policymakers with insights into the
As localities order people to stay at home and non-essential businesses to close, consumers are turning to online options. Although you might welcome the traffic, you might also be facing unexpected challenges like a reduced work force, supply chain disruptions, manufacturing shifts from regular inventory to medical necessities, and other hurdles that can cause shipping
As a follow-up to our recent posts on price gouging (see here, here, and here), we noted recent signs that federal and state authorities have escalated their enforcement efforts.
Over the past few weeks, my colleagues have discussed some of the considerations for marketing around COVID-19, including claim substantiation and price gouging. In the next few posts, we are going to take a deeper dive into a few topics, beginning with telemarketing. Here are some points to keep in mind:
States of Emergency
If you’ve been shopping lately, it’s likely that you’ve encountered empty shelves and shortages of items, such as (for inexplicable reasons) toilet paper. This tends to happen whenever a disaster – whether that’s a hurricane or COVID-19 – strikes. In some cases, retailers respond to these shortages by increasing prices. Although there may be legitimate
This post updates an earlier post relating to marketing around the coronavirus.
We noted a couple news items this week that help add context to the pervasiveness of and risks related to price gouging enforcement. In this story, the New York Times reported on a merchant who was selling hand sanitizer and related protective
