California’s new Autobot Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17940, et seq. (SB 1001), which goes into effect July 1, 2019, may affect businesses that use chatbots to interact with customers online. As the nation’s first autobot regulation, SB 1001 makes it unlawful “to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in California online, with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly…

Nevada is the latest state to strengthen privacy laws to address the perceived need for more oversight of how companies handle personal data. On May 29, 2019, Nevada’s governor signed into law Senate Bill 220, which amends the state’s online privacy notice statute, Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 603A.300 et. seq. The amendments provide consumers with the right to restrict an entity’s “sale” of covered information while also excluding certain entities from the…

The United States Supreme Court recently held that classwide arbitration cannot be inferred from an ambiguous agreement.  The Supreme Court’s decision reverses a Ninth Circuit decision that relied on state contract principles to compel classwide arbitration of a putative class action filed by an individual employee. In Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, __ U.S. __ (April 24, 2019), the Court considered whether the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) forecloses interpretation of an ambiguous arbitration agreement compelling…

The Ninth Circuit recently held a company vicariously liable for the actions of a downstream vendor of text message and telephone marketing activities. Companies should consider due diligence and vendor oversight protocols as counter-measures to limit the risk of liability for digital advertising and text marketing activities. Read the full article here.…

On August 7, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a public workshop to examine consumer protection issues related to the sale of “loot boxes” in video games. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, “loot boxes” are often in-game rewards that players can buy that typically contain a random assortment of virtual “loot” items for players to use in the game (e.g., to help them succeed or to customize their in-game avatars). Although loot…

In 2016, UrthBox, Inc., a subscription-based service sending monthly snack boxes to customers, had only nine reviews on the Better Business Bureau’s website and all of them were negative. By 2017 UrthBox had 695 BBB reviews, 612 of which were positive. According to a complaint from the FTC however, the cascade of positive reviews was the result of an incentivized review program. Specifically, in 2017 UrthBox offered to send customers an incentive (a free snack…

On March 28, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) joined the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in sending warning letters to three companies that market products that contain cannabidiol (CBD), which the companies claim can treat a variety of serious physical and mental disorders.…