The SDPA and the CNMC, among other institutions, launch a series of coordinated actions related to the age verification of minors online, aimed at reinforcing their protection and preventing their access to harmful content. As in the rest of the European Union, the protection of minors online is one of the main areas of concern of Spanish authorities such as the Spanish Data Protection Agency (“SDPA”), the National Commission for Markets and Competition (“CNMC”) and…
In brief If you sell goods and services to consumers through automatically renewing payment plans, free or discounted trials that convert into full plans, or other “negative option features” that interpret a consumer’s silence as permission to keep charging them (collectively, “recurring subscriptions”), you should monitor and consider submitting comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) proposed Negative Option Rule. The proposed rule would impose detailed transparency, consent, simple cancellation and annual reminder requirements on companies…
“Dark patterns” is a term that U.S. authorities are increasingly using to refer to interface design strategies that manipulate users into making choices they likely wouldn’t have otherwise made and that may cause harm.
The blooming of the advertising industry has indeed triggered concerns related to misleading or otherwise unethical advertising practices. In an attempt to address this issue, Vietnam in 2021 issued Decree No. 70/2021/ND-CP (“Decree 70”), mainly regulating the cross-border provision of advertising services.
The Supreme Court of the United States has addressed a contentious split among federal circuit courts of appeals on the definition of “autodialer” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) with a decision that should greatly reduce the amount of TCPA litigation in the US. The TCPA prohibits any person from placing phone calls (including text messages) to a wireless number using an “autodialer,” among other things, without the recipient’s prior express consent (or, for…
In the first episode of our Digital Commerce, Marketing and Advertising Series, London Partners Helen Brown and Julia Hemmings are joined by Lauren McGuirl, Director of Commercial Disputes at CEDR, to talk about the forthcoming P2B Regulation, that comes into force on July 12, 2020. We take a look at: the implications for platforms and the businesses who rely on them the threshold questions – which arrangements does the regulation apply to? the dispute resolution curve -…
On March 2, 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a lead generator, CRDNN Limited (CRDNN), with a maximum £500,000 fine under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) for making more than 193 million automated nuisance calls. The full monetary penalty notice can be viewed here. What happened? CRDNN first came to the ICO’s attention due to a significant number of complaints from subscribers regarding large volumes of unsolicited marketing calls marketing a number of…
On January 8, 2020 the ICO published its draft Direct Marketing Code of Practice for public consultation, which is open until 4 March 2020. We are summarized the status of the draft code, the key areas which are new compared to the ICO’s current direct marketing guidance, and the next steps. What is the draft code and its status? The Information Commissioner is required to publish a statutory direct marketing code under the Data Protection…
On January 17, 2020, the ICO published a blog post entitled “Adtech – the reform of real time bidding has started and will continue”, which provides an update on key industry changes in relation to Real Time Bidding and the ICO’s approach going forward to the issues identified in its June 2019 report. We previously summarized the key points from the June 2019 report here, as well as an update from the ICO on…
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) continues to bring enforcement actions against companies that engage in false advertising and deceptively enrolling consumers in ongoing sales plans without express informed consent – a practice known as “negative option” marketing.On October 24, 2018, the FTC announced that a federal district court in California temporarily enjoined three defendants and the companies they controlled from enrolling consumers in any ongoing sales plan without the consumer’s express informed consent. A negative…