Early last week, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congresswomen Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced a new bill, the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, which would prohibit ad tech companies and other advertisers from engaging in targeted or “surveillance” advertising. Targeted advertising is defined under the bill as the dissemination of ads based
Advertising & Marketing
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. …
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Court of Justice of the EU Finds that Advertising Shown in Email Inbox is Subject to Rules on Direct Marketing
Posted in Advertising & Marketing, European Union
On November 26, 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) held in Case C-102/20 that the display of advertising messages in an electronic inbox in a form similar to that of an actual email constitutes direct marketing, and therefore is subject to EU Member States’ rules on direct marketing (see press release here…
Council Agrees Draft Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act
By Dan Cooper & Anna Oberschelp de Meneses on
On November 25, 2021, the Council of the European Union reached an agreement on the draft Digital Services Act (“DSA”) (see here and here) and the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) (see here) bringing them one step closer to adoption. The European Parliament will discuss the drafts on December 9 and plans to announce…
Progress on the Pending EU ePrivacy Regulation
According to a leaked draft, on November 4, 2021, the Council of the European Union (“Council”) and the European Parliament (“Parliament”) agreed a number of amendments to the following three chapters of the draft ePrivacy Regulation, which will replace the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC and has been pending since January 2017):
- Chapter III (End-Users’ Rights
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Supreme Court Narrows Meaning of TCPA Autodialer Definition
By Inside Privacy on
Today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Facebook v. Duguid, adopting a narrow interpretation of a key definitional term in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and resolving the circuit split we previously described here and here.
In effect, the Supreme Court’s opinion means that to qualify as an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) under the TCPA, a device must use a random or sequential number generator; a device that calls a prescribed set of telephone numbers without using such a number generator would stand outside that definition and thus not be regulated by the TCPA.
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FCC Imposes New Requirements on Nonmarketing Prerecorded Calls to Residential Lines
By Yaron Dori on
Posted in Federal Communications Commission, TCPA
On December 30, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released a Report and Order (“Order”) that imposed certain new restrictions on nonmarketing prerecorded calls to residential lines. The action was in response to Congress’s mandate in the TRACED Act that the FCC reevaluate certain exemptions the agency previously granted regarding the consent requirements for prerecorded calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).
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Germany Publishes New Draft Rules for Cookies and Similar Technologies
On January 12, 2021, the German Ministry for the Economy and Energy released a new draft Law on Data Protection and the Protection of Privacy in Telecommunications and Telemedia (“TTDSG” or “draft law”). If enacted, the draft law will replace the existing data protection and privacy provisions of Germany’s Telemedia Act and Telecommunications Act (“Telemedia Act”), including provisions applicable to the use of cookies and similar technologies. The draft text was subject to public consultation from its publication until January 22, 2021, and responses submitted during that period will now be considered by the German Federal Government in advance of a formal proposal for the Federal Parliament to consider.
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The Spanish Supervisory Authority Approves a GDPR Code of Conduct on Advertising
On September 16, 2020, the Spanish Supervisory Authority (“AEPD”) approved a “Code of Conduct for Data Processing in Advertising” (“Code”) (see the decision approving the code here). This is the first GDPR approved Code of Conduct with an accredited monitoring body in the European Union. The Code enters into effect on November 17, 2020, two months after its approval.
Below we provide a brief FAQ about the Code.…
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Courts Find TCPA Unenforceable for Acts Prior to July 2020
By Inside Privacy on
Posted in Litigation, TCPA
Last week, an Ohio district court found that violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) occurring between 2015 and July 2020 cannot be enforced because the law was unconstitutional at the time. The case is captioned Lindenbaum v. Realgy, LLC, No. 19-CV-02862 (N.D. Ohio), and the opinion builds on an earlier decision from a Louisiana district court that reached a similar conclusion in Creasy v. Charter Communications Inc., No. 20-CV-01199 (E.D. La.). …
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