Retail & Consumer Products Law Observer

Retail & Consumer Products Law Observer

Legal Insight for the Retail and Consumer Products Industry

CPSC Reaction to Consumer Misuse – Human Factors Design Process

By Cheryl A. Falvey and Stephanie Crawford on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

© Getty Images

Product liability suits and regulatory product defect enforcement actions associated with consumer foreseeable – and unforeseeable – misuse have become the norm. Consumer product companies can mitigate these risks by focusing on use-related hazards and user-centered designs in an effort to reduce injuries and improve the usability of products. But the real question is how far to go with these efforts — at what cost and for what incremental benefit.

On March 15, 2018, the Consumer Product Safety Commission published Draft Guidance on the Application of Human Factors to Consumer Products for industry comment by May 14, 2018. The draft guidance was developed in conjunction with Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety Directorate. CPSC and Health Canada aim to increase product safety by explaining to product designers and manufacturers how to incorporate human factors[1] into the design process.

The draft guidance describes the product design process and provides guidance on human factors considerations at each stage and then summarized in the graphic depictions collected at the end of this post. Because the guidance is not an enforceable rule, no cost benefit analysis accompanies the myriad of product design recommendations proposed.

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FTC Targets Cryptocurrency Pyramid Schemes

By Kate Watkins and Lauren B. Aronson on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

© iStock

The FTC’s Consumer Protection Division has long targeted advertisements for “work-at-home,” business and investment opportunities that exaggerate the earning potential and downplay risks. Recently, the FTC announced that it filed a complaint against four individuals doing business as “Bitcoin Funding Team” in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for deceptively advertising a cryptocurrency scheme that promised consumers that they could turn a cryptocurrency payment of approximately $100 into $80,000 in monthly income. Specifically, the complaint alleges two counts: 1) that Defendants’ representations that the programs are structured to operate as bona fide money-making opportunities are false or misleading and violate Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, and 2) that Defendants’ representations that consumers who participate in the programs are likely to earn substantial income are also false or misleading, violating Section 5(a). On March 16th, the Commission secured a temporary restraining order against, and froze the assets of pending trial, the defendants it alleges who were operating and promoting cryptocurrency pyramid schemes.

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Is the Cambridge Analytica Scandal a Watershed Moment for the Ad-Funded Internet?

By Christopher A. Cole on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

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The news that Cambridge Analytica, the shadowy, digital political consultancy, may have misused user data obtained from Facebook is reverberating throughout Washington and foreign capitals. The immediate fallout has been calls for Congressional and federal investigations into what happened. The Federal Trade Commission has taken the unusual step of publicly announcing a “non-public” investigation into whether Facebook breached the terms of a 2011 consent agreement with the agency. A coalition of 37 State Attorneys General has also sent a letter to Facebook demanding information about how the company handles information collected by users.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Cambridge Analytica’s Chief Executive Officer was caught on hidden camera pitching outright blackmail and dirty tricks to sway future elections. But, the real scandal appears to be that Cambridge misused information collected from Facebook members and their friends in order to psychologically manipulate them to favor one candidate over another. The ensuing media attention has brought to the fore concerns that have been simmering for years, but which have until now largely been ignored by average consumers.

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Can the Government Foster Innovation While Regulating New Technology? Check Out “Digital Transformation: The Sky’s The Limit” – Part of Crowell & Moring’s 2018 Regulatory Forecast

By Crowell & Moring on Posted in Privacy & Data Protection

Crowell & Moring has issued its “Regulatory Forecast 2018: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year.”

With the development of artificial intelligence, blockchain, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and other advances in technology, the cover story, “Digital Transformation: The Sky’s the Limit,” provides a look at how technology is helping companies soar to new heights and how regulation can help companies to succeed. While data is a driver for innovation, the article examines how it also carries new and unintended implications for regulatory enforcement, product liability, cybersecurity, and intellectual property.

The overall theme of the fourth-annual Forecast is how digital technology is driving the future of business across a wide range of industries – and how Washington, as well as state and global regulators, is forging the appropriate balance between fostering innovation and protecting consumers. This report is the companion piece to the firm’s 2018 Litigation Forecast, which was published in January and also focused on the opportunities and challenges general counsel face in navigating the Big Data revolution.

Be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter with #RegulatoryForecast.

 

Holding Agencies Accountable: Ad Agency Agrees to Pay Largest Penalty Ever for False Advertising

By Lauren B. Aronson and Helen Osun on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

In the largest-ever penalty issued against an ad agency, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Marketing Architects, Inc. (MAI) agreed to pay $2 million dollars to settle a false advertising complaint filed with the FTC and the State of Maine Attorney General’s Office.

The ad agency came to the FTC’s attention after the Commission settled with Direct Alternatives (DA) and Sensa Products, LLC  for more than $16 million and more than $26 million respectively to resolve claims that the companies engaged in the false and deceptive advertising, marketing and sale of weight loss products.  According to the Complaint, MAI created direct response radio ads for Sensa and DA as well as MI6 Holdings, LLC (MI6) and other unidentified clients with toll free numbers inviting consumers to call and purchase weight loss. In addition, for some clients, including DA, MAI created and implemented scripts for its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, providing testing, analysis and strategic advice regarding the performance of its IVR scripts and ads as well as collecting payment information.

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Don’t Settle for Less: Ninth Circuit Rules That Courts Must Consider Variations Among State Laws Before Certifying Nationwide Settlement Classes

By Josh Foust on Posted in Consumer Class Action

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Recent years have seen federal courts applying increased scrutiny to proposed “multistate” class actions that invoke a hodgepodge of state consumer-protection laws. The main reason: The variations among these state laws are not only extensive but often case-determinative, preventing class representatives from proving their claims on a classwide basis.

These decisions have, in turn, raised another question that has divided judges, commentators, and practitioners: Does the same high bar apply to the certification of nationwide classes that are purely vehicles for settlement—meaning that the court will never have to address the practical and legal difficulties of managing an actual classwide trial involving fifty (or more) state laws? In late January the Ninth Circuit weighed in to answer that it does, in a potentially seminal opinion that could, in the words of one dissenting judge, strike a “major blow” to multistate class action settlements.

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Pharmavite, Maker of NatureMade Omega-3 Xtra Blend Dietary Supplement, Referred to FTC After Declining to Comply with NAD Recommendation to Discontinue Absorption Claim

By Jessica Gilbert on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

© Getty Images

The National Advertising Division, referred Pharmavite, LLC to the Federal Trade Commission after the company refused to comply with NAD’s recommendations that it discontinue its claim that its NatureMade Omega 3 Xtra Blend dietary supplement has “Nearly 4X Better Absorption* *than standard fish oil concentrate.”

To substantiate its “Nearly 4X Better Absorption” claim, Pharmavite relied on a study that compared the absorption of 630 mg and 1680 mg doses of EPA/DHA omega 3 fatty acids manufactured with and without a self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (SMEDS). The study determined that the absorption of EPA/DHA manufactured with SMEDS was better than the absorption rate of standard fish oil (manufactured without SMEDS) for the two doses of EPA/DHA. The study concluded that there was a 6.2 differential for a 630 mg dose and a 9.6 differential for a 1680 mg dose.

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How to Navigate the Big Data Revolution? Read “Data, Data Everywhere” – Part of Crowell & Moring’s 2018 Litigation Forecast

By Crowell & Moring on Posted in Privacy & Data Protection

Crowell & Moring has issued its “Litigation Forecast 2018: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year.”

With the development of artificial intelligence, chat bots, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and other advances in technology, the cover story, “Data, Data Everywhere,” takes a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges general counsel face in navigating the Big Data revolution. While data is a driver for innovation, the article examines how it also carries new and unintended implications for regulatory enforcement, product liability, cybersecurity, and intellectual property.

Be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter with #LitigationForecast.

 

FTC Settles First Connected Toy Case With VTech After Massive Data Breach

By Peter B. Miller and Lauren B. Aronson on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management

On January 8, 2018, the FTC announced settlement of its first connected toy case with VTech Electronics Ltd (“VTech”) for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rules by failing to properly collect and protect personal information about and from children and violating the FTC Act by misrepresenting its security practices. In addition to paying a $650,000 civil penalty, VTech agreed to comply with COPPA, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program with regular third-party security audits for the next twenty years, and not misrepresent its privacy and data security practices.

The settlement comes more than two years after VTech learned that a hacker had gained remote access to databases for its interactive electronic learning products (ELPs), including for its Kid Connect chat application, in what was described at the time as the largest known hack targeting children. According to the FTC’s Complaint, the hacker accessed VTech’s databases “by exploiting commonly known and reasonably foreseeable vulnerabilities,” and VTech was unaware of the intrusion until it was informed by a reporter.

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Surveys Seal the Deal in Defeating Starbucks and 5 Hour Energy Class Actions

By Julia Milewski on Posted in Advertising & Product Risk Management, Consumer Class Action

Surveys play an increasingly important role in consumer class actions, whether used to deny class certification, defeat plaintiffs’ allegations of consumer “deception,” or even refute damages arguments.

Recently, beverage giant Starbucks Corp. defeated a proposed class action alleging that Starbucks had violated consumer protection statutes in California, Florida, and New York by uniformly filling its lattes and mochas with more foam – and less actual beverage – than a reasonable consumer would expect. In dismissing the case on summary judgment and denying class certification as moot, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for the Northern District of California focused on the plaintiffs’ flawed survey results. Strumlauf et al. v. Starbucks Corp., No. 16-CV-01306-YGR, 2018 WL 306715 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 5, 2018). The plaintiffs had introduced an expert report presenting the results of two surveys purporting to show that 70-80% of consumers expected that the “Promised Beverage Volume” of Starbucks lattes did not include foam. The first survey showed respondents a sample menu board with small, medium, and large and asked how many fluid ounces of beverage they expected to receive. This survey was flawed, the court found, because it did not measure consumers’ understanding of what “fluid ounce” means. The second survey showed images of a cup with varying amounts of fluid and foam and then asked which “medium 16 fl. oz. beverage” the respondents expected to receive. This survey, too, fell short because it showed a “caricatured image” and “the ‘question begg[ed] its answer [and was] not a true indicator of the likelihood of consumer confusion.’” In sum, the Court attacked the surveys as “leading and suggestive” and ultimately found they failed to establish a triable issue on consumer deception.

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