International Law

Social Networking Site Operator

Posted on February 06, 2008
Social Networking Site Operator Resolves COPPA AllegationsThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.The operators of a social networking web site for kids and ?tweens? have agreed to settle FTC charges that their data-collection practices violated the Children?s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Commission?s implementing rule...

Bulk of Washington Beer, Wine Regulations

Posted on February 04, 2008
Bulk of Washington Beer, Wine Regulations Survive Antitrust ChallengeThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.A Washington State regulation for alcoholic beverages, which required that wholesalers post their prices and adhere to those prices for at least 30 days (?post-and-hold? pricing system), was a per se violation of the Sherman Act, which was not saved by operation of the state?s powers under the Twenty-First Amendment to the U...

Microsoft Antitrust Final Judgments

Posted on February 01, 2008
Microsoft Antitrust Final Judgments Extended to November 2009This posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.The federal district court in Washington, D.C. has extended until November 12, 2009 the terms of the antitrust final judgments against Microsoft Corporation that had been set to expire in large part in November 2007...

Use of Former Chef?s Name Could

Posted on January 31, 2008
Use of Former Chef?s Name Could Be False Advertising, Breach of Publicity, Privacy RightsThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.A hotel chain?s continued use of a renowned chef?s name, after he had resigned, to promote wedding packages at a Philadelphia hotel could constitute Lanham Act false advertising and unauthorized use of a name under a Pennsylvania statute, as well as common law misappropriation of publicity and invasion of privacy, the federal district court in Philadelphia has ruled...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Misrepresenting Mortgage Prepayment

Posted on January 30, 2008
Misrepresenting Mortgage Prepayment Credits Could Violate California Consumer LawsThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.Federal banking law and regulations did not preempt state law claims that a mortgage lender misrepresented how it would apply prepayments to principal, and the lender's practices could have violated the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, False Advertising Act, and Unfair Competition Law, the federal district court in San Francisco has ruled...

Copier Equipment Lessors Alleged

Posted on January 29, 2008
Copier Equipment Lessors Alleged Restraint In AftermarketsThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.Lessors of copier equipment adequately alleged that a competitor violated the antitrust laws by restraining competition in the aftermarkets for equipment upgrades and lease-end services, the U...

FTC Challenges Refusal to Meet

Posted on January 28, 2008
FTC Challenges Refusal to Meet Commitment to License Patents for ?Ethernet?This posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.A divided Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint alleging that Negotiated Data Solutions LLC (N-Data) engaged in unfair methods of competition and unfair acts or practices in violation of Sec...

Attorney-Requested Studies Not

Posted on January 25, 2008
Attorney-Requested Studies Not Shielded from Discovery in False Ad SuitThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.Five scientific studies of the efficacy of a power toothbrush were not shielded from discovery by the attorney work product privilege, even though the studies were undertaken by the manufacturer (Ultreo) in consultation with outside counsel under the looming specter of litigation, the federal district court in New York City has ruled...

Petroleum Marketing Practices Act

Posted on January 24, 2008
Petroleum Marketing Practices Act Amended to Allow Franchisees to Sell ?Renewable Fuel?This posting was written by Peter Reap, Editor of CCH Business Franchise Guide.Recent amendments to the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act prohibit gasoline franchisors from restricting franchisees?through a new or renewed franchise-related document?from (1) installing renewable fuel pumps or tanks (except when premises are owned by the franchisor), (2) converting fuel pumps or tanks to renewable fuel use, (3) advertising the sale of any renewable fuel, (4) selling renewable fuel in any area of the franchise premises, (5) purchasing renewable fuel from another source if the franchisor does not offer such fuel for sale, (6) displaying the availability and price of renewable fuel, or (7) permitting payment of renewable fuel with a credit card...

Supreme Court to Review ?Light?

Posted on January 23, 2008
Supreme Court to Review ?Light? Cigarette Advertising CaseThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether smokers can pursue a suit alleging that tobacco company Philip Morris made fraudulent misrepresentations in violation of the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act by advertising and promoting Marlboro and Cambridge Lights as ?light? and having ?Lowered Tar and Nicotine...

FTC Announces Revised Thresholds

Posted on January 18, 2008
FTC Announces Revised Thresholds for Premerger Notification ProcessThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.The Federal Trade Commission announced today its revised thresholds for acquisitions and mergers subject to the report-and-wait requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act...

Experts Weigh In on Presidential

Posted on January 18, 2008
Experts Weigh In on Presidential Candidates? Prospective Antitrust Enforcement PoliciesThis posting was written by John W. Arden.One of the relatively few issues not discussed in the scores of debates already conducted by presidential candidates is antitrust enforcement...

NASCAR?s Refusal to Let Racetrack

Posted on January 16, 2008
NASCAR?s Refusal to Let Racetrack Hold Premium Event Was Not UnlawfulThis posting was written by Darius Sturmer, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.North American Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), that sport's governing body and promoter, did not engage in attempted monopolization or an unlawful conspiracy with a national racetrack management company by denying an independent racetrack's applications to host a premium stock car race, the federal district court in Covington, Kentucky, has held...

New York State Attorney General

Posted on January 16, 2008
New York State Attorney General Opens Investigation of IntelThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.Intel Corporation, the world's largest maker of computer microprocessors, is the subject of an antitrust investigation launched by New York State Attorney General Andrew M...

EC Announces Two New Antitrust

Posted on January 14, 2008
EC Announces Two New Antitrust Investigations into MicrosoftThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.The European Commission (EC) has opened two formal antitrust investigations into Microsoft Corporation for the computer software maker's alleged abuse of its dominant market position...

Sears Website Allegedly Compromised

Posted on January 11, 2008
Sears Website Allegedly Compromised Personal InformationThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Privacy Law in Marketing.A Sears web-based system designed to allow customers to view their purchase history at www.managemyhome.com compromised personal information by allowing anyone to access customers? private purchase histories, according to a class action complaint filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois...

High Court to Review Reliance Requirement

Posted on January 10, 2008
High Court to Review Reliance Requirement for Mail Fraud-Based Civil RICO ClaimsThis posting was written by Sonali Oberg, Editor of CCH RICO Business Disputes Guide.The U.S. Supreme Court will review the question of whether a person asserting a civil RICO claim predicated on acts of mail fraud must plead and prove reliance on alleged misrepresentations...

Ticketmaster Canada Found to Violate

Posted on January 09, 2008
Ticketmaster Canada Found to Violate Alberta Privacy LawThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Privacy Law in Marketing.Ticketmaster Canada violated the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) by requiring online customers to consent to the use of personal information for event providers? marketing purposes, as a condition of a ticket sales transaction, according to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC)...

FTC Victory Against ?Ionized? Bracelet

Posted on January 08, 2008
FTC Victory Against ?Ionized? Bracelet Marketers UpheldThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.Marketers of the ?Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet? violated the FTC Act by claiming that tests proved the therapeutic claims they made about the product, the U...

State Antitrust Enforcers Targeted

Posted on January 04, 2008
State Antitrust Enforcers Targeted Insurance Sector, Mergers, Microsoft in 2007This posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.As in 2006, state antitrust enforcers continued to target alleged anticompetitive conduct in the insurance industry in 2007...

DOJ?s 2007 Antitrust Enforcement

Posted on January 03, 2008
DOJ?s 2007 Antitrust Enforcement Focused on Anti-Cartel, Merger ActivityThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, has stated that the ?detection, prosecution, and deterrence of cartel offenses ...

FTC Enforcement: 2007 HighlightsThis

Posted on January 02, 2008
FTC Enforcement: 2007 HighlightsThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.In 2007, the FTC continued to focus its enforcement efforts on sectors of the economy that it believed had the greatest impact on consumers, including health care, energy, retail, technology, and real estate...

Mortgage Company to Pay $50,000

Posted on December 28, 2007
Mortgage Company to Pay $50,000 for Tossing Loan Documents in DumpsterThis posting was written by Darius Sturmer, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.An Illinois-based mortgage company that left loan documents with consumers' sensitive personal and financial information in and around an unsecured dumpster has agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty to settle FTC charges that the conduct violated federal regulations...

Marketer Asserts Actual Controversy

Posted on December 27, 2007
Marketer Asserts Actual Controversy in Russian Vodka Advertising DisputeThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.A vodka marketer seeking to enter the U.S. market by touting the "authentically Russian" character of its product established the existence of an actual controversy for purposes of a declaratory judgment action against the marketer and U...

Justice Department Will Not Appeal

Posted on December 26, 2007
Justice Department Will Not Appeal Dismissal of Stolt-Nielsen Antitrust IndictmentThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reports.The Department of Justice announced on December 21 that it will not appeal a federal district court's dismissal of an indictment against London-based Stolt-Nielsen S...

Privacy Principles for Online Behavioral

Posted on December 21, 2007
Privacy Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising Proposed by FTC StaffThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.The Federal Trade Commission staff has released proposed privacy principles to guide the development of companies? ?self-regulation? in the rapidly evolving area of online behavioral advertising...

FTC Closes Antitrust Investigation

Posted on December 20, 2007
FTC Closes Antitrust Investigation into Google/DoubleClick CombinationThis posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reports.Explaining that the ?sole purpose of federal antitrust review of mergers and acquisitions is to identify and remedy transactions that harm competition,? the FTC announced its decision to close its eight-month investigation into the Google Inc...

Pentium 4 Purchasers Cannot Pursue

Posted on December 19, 2007
Pentium 4 Purchasers Cannot Pursue Illinois False Ad Class ActionThis posting was written by William Zale, Editor of CCH Advertising Law Guide.A class of Illinois purchasers of Intel Pentium 4 computers cannot be certified on claims that Intel violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled...

House Passes Bill to Eliminate

Posted on December 17, 2007
House Passes Bill to Eliminate Need to Re-Register for Do Not Call ListThis posting was written by John Scorza, CCH Washington Correspondent.The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would eliminate the automatic removal of telephone numbers from the Do Not Call registry and the need for consumers to re-register their numbers...

Chairman Majoras, FTC Reject Request

Posted on December 14, 2007
Chairman Majoras, FTC Reject Request for RecusalThis posting was written by John W. Arden.FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras will not recuse herself from the Commission?s review of Google?s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., based on DoubleClick?s representation by the Jones Day law firm, where her husband is a partner in the antitrust practice group...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.