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Joanna Rosen Forster

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Joanna Forster’s multifaceted background positions her to effectively manage conflicts across the legal spectrum and across the globe. In her prior roles as general counsel (representing both plaintiffs and defendants) and as government prosecutor/enforcer, Joanna handled nearly every type of matter, ranging from complex commercial and white collar matters in areas such as employment, intellectual property, securities and antitrust law, to internal investigations and corporate and M&A transactions. She views her role as both a conflict manager, dispensing advice to avoid adversarial action, and as a tech and business litigator, resolving disputes with her client’s business goals in mind.

Having served as the general counsel and compliance officer of a publicly traded ecommerce platform operating in over 60 countries, Joanna has an appreciation of strategic dispute resolution, investigations, and compliance from a general counsel’s perspective. By understanding how business leaders combine the input of in-house and outside counsel to make decisions, Joanna is able to provide her clients with decisive and efficient legal guidance.

Her practice includes litigating domestic and cross-border complex commercial disputes and advising technology and ecommerce companies on matters related to internet platforms, product launches, market campaigns, and new vertical lines of business, all while advising on foreign and domestic laws that regulate online content, physical products, and the companies that bring them to market. Drawing on her experience as the General Counsel of an online e-commerce marketplace, Joanna also regularly advises and counsels clients on California’s Proposition 65, from prevention and compliance to remediation. Joanna is well-versed in key regulations that impact ecommerce companies, including the EU’s Digital Services Act, the U.S. INFORM Act, and the proposed SHOP SAFE Act, as well as laws and regulations that govern online speech such as the Communications Decency Act, Section 230.

Prior to going in-house, Joanna was the deputy attorney general, Corporate Fraud Section of the California Department of Justice. In this capacity, she led large, complex civil matters alleging violations of California’s False Claims Act, Securities Law, Section 17200, Cartwright Act, and other deceptive business practices. She also maintained her own investigations and litigation docket.

Before joining the California Department of Justice, Joanna spent nearly a decade in private practice, where she focused on civil and criminal antitrust and commercial litigation. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall in the U.S. District Court for the Central District Court of California.

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Register now to join Crowell partners Joanna Forster, Toni Michelle Jackson, and Jordan Ludwig for a focused discussion on surveillance pricing — what it means for your business, the risks it creates, and the concrete steps you can take now, from reviewing your pricing practices and privacy policies to building a proactive risk management strategy. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Continue Reading Register Now! The Next Frontier — Surveillance & Personalized Pricing Webinar

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030, setting out the agency’s enforcement priorities and operational objectives for the next five years under Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. The plan reaffirms the FTC’s commitment to vigorously enforcing the nation’s antitrust and consumer protection laws “without fear or favor.” Critically for…

On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for failing to protect kids from child exploitation on its platforms and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages for consumer-protection violations. The next day, a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for platform features that cause children to become…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was active in the consumer protection space, announcing two Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM). The focus was on deceptive pricing, particularly with housing and automobiles. The FTC issued an ANPRM to address unfair or deceptive fee practices in the rental housing market, distributed checks to consumers negatively impacted by a landlord, and sent warning letters to auto dealership groups across the country. These stories and more after the jump.

Continue Reading FTC Updates (March 9-13, 2026)

With the agency still operating with three Commissioner vacancies, the FTC took a range of notable actions in mid-February, spanning consumer data protection, health claims enforcement, labor market competition, and digital platform accountability. The agency’s activity to wrap February pertained primarily to rulemaking, seeking public comment about competitor collaboration, and holding a workshop about consumer data and privacy. The Commission also issued a policy statement about enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. These stories and more after the jump.

Continue Reading FTC Updates (February 9-13, 23-27, 2026)

2026 will be a significant year for retailers and e-commerce companies, with significant changes on the horizon that will affect the entire industry and ecosystem. In this alert, we highlight the top issues retailers and e-commerce companies should be aware of and ready to tackle in 2026. Click here to continue reading the full version…

As we approach the end of the year, the FTC has been active in the consumer protection arena, reopening and setting aside a consent order due to President Trump’s AI Executive Order, analyzing consumer losses to rental scams, and warning companies about possible violations of the new Consumer Review Rule. More on these stories after the jump.

Continue Reading FTC Updates (December 22 – 26, 2025)

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Bureau of Competition; Competition; Nonmerger; Noncompete

  • The FTC finalized a consent order requiring Gateway Services, Inc. and its subsidiary, Gateway US Holdings, Inc. (collectively “Gateway”) to stop entering into or enforcing noncompete agreements on their employees. The order followed the FTC’s September 2025 complaint, which alleged that Gateway’s noncompete agreements were anticompetitive and suppressed competition. Previously, these agreements prohibited Gateway employees from working in the pet cremation industry anywhere in the United States for one year after leaving the company. Under the consent order, Gateway must stop enforcing its existing noncompete agreements and is prohibited from entering into similar agreements in the future.
Continue Reading Updates November 24 – December 5, 2025