On December 20, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced its issuance of Health Products Compliance Guidance, which updates and replaces its previous 1998 guidance, Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry. While the FTC notes that the basic content of the guide is largely left unchanged, this guidance expands the scope of the previous guidance beyond dietary supplements to broadly include claims made about all health-related products, such as foods, over-the-counter drugs, devices, health apps, and diagnostic tests. This updated guidance emphasizes “key compliance points” drawn from the numerous enforcement actions brought by the FTC since 1998, and discusses associated examples related to topics such as claim interpretation, substantiation, and other advertising issues.Continue Reading FTC Issues New Guidance Regarding Health Products

Laura Kim
Laura Kim draws upon her experience in senior positions at the Federal Trade Commission to advise clients across industries on complex advertising, privacy, and data security matters. She provides practical compliance advice and represents clients in FTC and State AG investigations. Laura advises on a wide range of consumer protection issues, including green claims, influencers, native advertising, claim substantiation, Made in USA claims, children's privacy, subscription auto-renewal marketing, and other digital advertising matters. In addition, Laura actively practices before the NAD, including recent successful resolution of matters for both challengers and advertisers. She is the Chair of Covington's Advertising and Consumer Protection Investigations Group and participates in the firm's Internet of Things Initiative.
Laura re-joined Covington after a twelve-year tenure at the FTC, where she served as Assistant Director in two divisions of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as Chief of Staff in the Bureau of Consumer Protection and Attorney Advisor to former Chairman William E. Kovacic. She worked on key FTC Rules and Guides such as the Green Guides, Jewelry Guides, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. She supervised these and other rule making proceedings and oversaw dozens of the Commission’s investigations and enforcement actions involving compliance with these rules. Laura also supervised compliance monitoring for companies under federal court or Commission order.
Laura also served as Deputy Chief Enforcement Officer at the U.S. Department of Education, where she helped establish a new Enforcement Office within Federal Student Aid. In this role, she managed investigations of higher education institutions and oversaw issuance of fines and adverse actions for institutions in violation of federal student aid regulations. Laura also supervised the borrower defense to repayment division and the Clery campus safety and security division.
Google and iHeartMedia Reach Settlements with FTC and States for Deceptive Endorsements
On November 28, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and seven state attorneys general announced that they reached settlements with Google LLC and iHeartMedia, Inc., to resolve claims that the companies aired deceptive advertisements promoting Google’s Pixel 4 phone by arranging for iHeartMedia radio personalities who never actually used the phone to personally endorse it. The companies agreed to pay a combined $9.4 million to the states to settle these allegations.Continue Reading Google and iHeartMedia Reach Settlements with FTC and States for Deceptive Endorsements
FTC Flexes ROSCA Muscle With $100 Million “Dark Patterns” Settlement with Vonage
On November 3, the FTC announced that it entered into a significant $100 million settlement with Vonage to resolve allegations relating to the internet phone service provider’s sales and autorenewal practices. The FTC alleged that Vonage violated both the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) by failing to provide a simple cancellation mechanism, failing to disclose material transaction terms prior to obtaining consumers’ billing information, and charging consumers without consent.Continue Reading FTC Flexes ROSCA Muscle With $100 Million “Dark Patterns” Settlement with Vonage
FTC Announces Regulatory Priorities for Both Privacy and Competition
On December 10th, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a Statement of Regulatory Priorities that announced the agency’s intent to initiate rulemakings on issues such as privacy, security, algorithmic decision-making, and unfair methods of competition.
Continue Reading FTC Announces Regulatory Priorities for Both Privacy and Competition
Hearing on Consumer Protection During the Pandemic Focuses on FTC’s Equitable Monetary Authority
On February 4, 2021, the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce held a hearing entitled, “Safeguarding American Consumers: Fighting Scams and Fraud During the Pandemic.” The hearing focused on the FTC’s ability to obtain equitable monetary relief under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act – an issue that is currently being considered by the Supreme Court in AMG Capital Management LLC v. Federal Trade Commission.
To gain a better understanding of the deceptive marketing campaigns seeking to exploit the ongoing public health crisis and the challenges the FTC faces in fighting fraud, the Subcommittee invited Bonnie Patten, Executive Director of TruthInAdvertising.org; Jessica Rich, former Bureau of Consumer Protection Director and Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law School; William E. Kovacic, former FTC Chairman and Global Competition Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School; and Traci Ponto, Spokane COPS Crime Victim Advocate at Spokane Community Oriented Policy Services.
Continue Reading Hearing on Consumer Protection During the Pandemic Focuses on FTC’s Equitable Monetary Authority
What A New Administration Means for the FTC’s Data Privacy & Security Enforcement Agenda
With a new administration and a new Congress come key leadership changes and new priorities at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The change in administration paves the way for a Democratic-led Commission, though a permanent FTC Chairman and a successor to Commissioner Chopra (who has been nominated to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) might not be confirmed for several months. In the meantime, President Biden has appointed sitting Commissioner Slaughter to serve as Acting Chair.
Continue Reading What A New Administration Means for the FTC’s Data Privacy & Security Enforcement Agenda
FTC Reaches Settlement with Tapjoy for Allegedly Deceiving Consumers About In-Game Rewards
On January 7, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) reached a proposed settlement with Tapjoy, a California-based company that operates an advertising platform within mobile gaming applications. According to its complaint, the FTC alleges that Tapjoy deceived consumers by failing to provide in-game rewards it promised for completing actions associated with third-party advertisements.
Continue Reading FTC Reaches Settlement with Tapjoy for Allegedly Deceiving Consumers About In-Game Rewards
FTC Remedial Power Under Scrutiny at U.S. Supreme Court
On Wednesday, January 13, the Supreme Court heard arguments in AMG Capital Management LLC v. Federal Trade Commission. This case raises the question whether the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been properly using Section 13(b) of the FTC Act, the provision authorizing requests for preliminary and permanent injunctions where…
Continue Reading FTC Remedial Power Under Scrutiny at U.S. Supreme Court
FTC and NAD Actions Highlight Continued Scrutiny of Online Reviews
As consumers rely more and more on the “independent” reviews of their peers in choosing products and services, advertisers need to remain vigilant that their role (if any) in disseminating such reviews is fairly disclosed, accurate and not misleading. The pitfalls in this area were recently illustrated by a pair of enforcement actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau. These actions, the latest in a series of similar enforcement efforts, confirm that review sites remain a hotbed of enforcement activity, and both actions serve as good reminders of the standards that review sites must observe to avoid similar actions.
The first of these actions is an FTC enforcement against LendEDU, which centered around the “objective,” “honest,” “accurate,” and “unbiased” rankings of financial products that LendEDU posted to its review site. The FTC alleged that, far from being objective and honest, these rankings were in fact determined based on compensation from the companies being ranked. In addition, the FTC alleged that over ninety percent of LendEDU’s “unbiased” positive reviews were in fact written by LendEDU employees and their friends and families.
Continue Reading FTC and NAD Actions Highlight Continued Scrutiny of Online Reviews
AB 2811: The Future of Automatic Renewals in California
On May 5th, 2020, the California Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection held a hearing and considered AB 2811, a bill that would amend existing California law governing automatic renewals. As currently drafted, AB 2811 would:
- require businesses to provide 3-7 days’ notice explaining how to cancel an automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer if the consumer accepted (1) a free gift or trial that lasts for a predetermined period of time as part of an automatic renewal or continuous service offer, or (2) the consumer accepted an automatic renewal or continuous service offer at a discounted price, and the applicability of that price was limited to a predetermined amount of time; and
- require businesses that permit consumers to accept automatic renewal or continuous service offers online to immediately terminate that service online.
Continue Reading AB 2811: The Future of Automatic Renewals in California