FTC settles with mobile ad company Tapjoy over deceptive practices
Mobile advertising company Tapjoy has settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it was misleading consumers about the in-app rewards they could earn in mobile games. According to the FTC, Tapjoy deceived consumers who participated in various activities like purchasing a product, signing up for a free trial, providing their personal information like an email address or completing a survey in exchange for in-game virtual currency. But when it was time to pay up, Tapjoy’s partners didn’t deliver.
As a result of the ruling, Tapjoy will have to clean up its business by monitoring the offers from advertisers presented to consumers and conspicuously display the terms that explain how rewards are earned. It will also be required to follow through to ensure the offers are delivered and investigate consumer complaints if they are not. Failure to follow the terms of the settlement will result
March 21, 2021 | 1:43 pm EDT by Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer: “Whenever I’m asked about the fate of the television business, I always answer, ‘As goes the next NFL deal, so goes TV.’ Well, as everyone with even the slightest interest in the subject already knows, the NFL/TV deal is done but times have changed. The NFL deal makes it very clear that it is time for the FCC to think seriously about reclaiming the spectrum gifted to the local broadcast industry. It is also time for Congress to craft policies that not only respect the state of today’s technology but aspire to leverage the technology of tomorrow.”
April 1, 2021 | 3:13 pm EDT by Scott R. Flick
Few rules in the Code of Federal Regulations have as tortured a history as 47 CFR § 73.3555 the broadcast multiple ownership rules. The subject of court decisions too numerous to count, a brief review of FCC decisions revising (or deciding not to revise) these rules reveals a twisted mass of logic and rationales where parties fiercely argue even as to the very reason for their existence. Today, the Supreme Court released a
unanimous decision reversing the Third Circuit’s ruling involving three ownership rules, noting simply that the FCC’s approach had been reasonable, and the fact that it made its decision based on the record before it rather than the record the Third Circuit wished for, was just the way government must function.
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Child’s Play: Federal Judge Shuts Down Privacy Litigation Brought Against Tech and Toy Companies Alleging They Violated Kids’ Privacy Rights Thursday, December 31, 2020
Rounding out 2020 a federal court right before Christmas squelched a significant litigation concerning alleged violations of children’s privacy rights brought against the operator of a video sharing platform and channel operators (including Cartoon Network, Inc., DreamWorks Animation LLC, Hasbro Studios LLC, and Mattel, Inc., among others).
Hubbard, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 239936 (N.D. Cal. 2020). The court held that plaintiff’s common law privacy and other state law claims were preempted by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). However, it was not a complete win for defendants the court allowed the plaintiffs “the opportunity to amend the complaint to allege facts showing that Defendants’ conduct amounts to more than solely a violation of COPPA’s
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Throughout 2020 we saw many enforcement actions brought by EU and U.S. regulators. Whether for allegations of deception (misleading privacy representations) or unfairness (failure to protect information), COVID did not appear to slow down regulatory action. Laws that many companies forget about -or don’t know as well- were enforced by regulators, as well as through class action lawsuits. This included the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
There are other laws that create a patchwork of requirements for organizations. They range from laws based on the type of entity (HIPAA, GLBA), to those that regulate the activities in which the entity engages (CAN-SPAM, TCPA), and laws designed to protect individuals from whom the company is collecting information (COPPA, FERPA).