With the rise of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, the demand for online content has increased exponentially. Given this new reality, online content creators must take steps to ensure that their online creations don’t land them in legal hot water. One of the most prevalent cross-industry issues is music licensing. Music is everywhere in online content and often plays an integral part in the overall experience. From video game players streaming music as they show…

Earlier this month, NAD issued its first decision under its Fast-Track SWIFT program, its expedited review track for single well-defined advertising issues. (Here are more details on NAD’s Fast-Track SWIFT program.) In its first substantive Fast-Track SWIFT decision, NAD dealt with a dispute between energy bar manufacturers Kind and Clif and reviewed the claim “A Better Performing Bar–Clif Bar For Sustained Energy,” which appeared as the top AdWords result for internet keyword searches for…

On June 17, 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a published opinion affirming the dismissal of a consumer class action seeking $32,000,000 against Venable client Premier Nutrition Corporation. The Court held that federal equitable principles must apply to class actions pending in federal court, even where state law rules the underlying causes of action. See Sonner v. Premier Nutrition Corp., No. 18-15890, 2020 WL 3263043 (9th Cir. June 17, 2020). Plaintiff-Appellant Kathleen Sonner sued…

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Liu v. SEC where it limited the SEC’s disgorgement authority to net profits returned to investors. Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two FTC cases to decide whether Section 13(b) of the FTC Act providing for “injunctive relief” includes the authority to obtain “equitable monetary relief” in the form of disgorgement. In the first of the two cases, AMG Capital Management v. FTC…

Today the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid where it will resolve a circuit split and decide the issue of whether an “automated telephone dialing system” (“ATDS” or “autodialer”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) encompasses any device that can “store” and “automatically dial” telephone numbers, even if the device does not “us[e] a random or sequential number generator.” In other words, the Court will determine whether a caller uses an…

On Monday July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., in which a majority of the Court struck down and severed the 2015 Government Debt Exception (the Exception) to the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) but held that the balance of the TCPA was constitutional. First, as oral argument in May indicated, the Court was brief in striking down the Exception…

Earlier this month, the FTC approved a settlement with a developer of popular apps for purported violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  The Commissioners voted 4-1 to authorize the Department of Justice to file the complaint and the stipulated final order resolving the matter.  Under the stipulated final order, the company was ordered to pay a $4 million civil penalty (although all but $150,000 of it was suspended for inability to pay).  The…