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Shahin O. Rothermel

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Shahin Rothermel is an experienced counselor and defender who helps advertisers, retailers, merchants, and marketers advance their business goals while reducing legal and regulatory risks. Shahin provides clients with up-to-date, practical insights into the constantly evolving advertising, marketing, and e-commerce regulations, which allows her clients to make informed decisions. She has achieved successful resolutions, dismissals, and full walkaways in court, saving clients millions of dollars. She takes a pragmatic approach as a counselor, considering the implications of her advice for her clients' marketing campaigns and their bottom lines.

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Nearly every automatic renewal article gives companies the same advice: make your disclosures clear and conspicuous, obtain affirmative consent, send acknowledgment notices, and offer a simple cancellation mechanism.

This advice is correct, but it’s also incomplete.

Venable’s Autorenewal Solutions Team (VAST) has spent years defending companies in automatic renewal investigations and class actions. That experience has taught us that many of the biggest legal risks don’t hinge on the wording of the checkout page.

Continue Reading Automatic Renewal Compliance: What Lawyers Aren’t Telling You About Your Biggest Legal Risks

Last week, the Seventh Circuit severely narrowed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) application to text messages, following several district court decisions. The court held that private litigants cannot sue under the Do Not Call prohibitions when a sender fails to honor opt-out requests for unwanted marketing text messages.

The decision may limit one avenue of TCPA liability, but it does not simplify compliance. Instead, the Seventh Circuit’s departure from other appellate courts adds uncertainty for businesses and could accelerate Supreme Court review of whether and how the TCPA applies to text messages.

In Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services, the Seventh Circuit concluded that although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) interpreted the Do Not Call provision to apply to text messages, Congress limited 227(c)(5)’s private remedy to repeated telephone calls, not text messages.

Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Creates New Uncertainty for TCPA Text Message Compliance

As of June 9, 2026, New York requires certain advertisements that use artificial intelligence-generated human performers to include a disclosure informing consumers that the advertisement contains a synthetic performer.

What Counts as a Synthetic Performer?

Governor Hochul’s office described the measure as the “first-in-the-nation” law aimed at increasing transparency around the use of AI in advertising. The law applies to commercial advertisements that depict a “synthetic performer,” defined as a digitally created, reproduced, or modified asset generated through artificial intelligence or other software that creates the impression of a human performer, but is not recognizable as any actual person.

Continue Reading New York AI Advertising Disclosure Requirement Now in Effect

Join us as we offer a sneak peek into select chapters from the newly released 14th edition of Venable’s Advertising Law Tool Kit, which helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Want more? Click here to download the entire Tool Kit.

Telemarketing and Texting

Telephone and text message marketing poses private litigation risks and regulatory hurdles that should be considered before any campaign. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and states enforce do-not-call (DNC) laws and impose multiple other requirements regarding calling manner, disclosures, consent, opt-out, calling hour limits, caller identification, and telemarketer registration. Calls and texts made to cell phones through the use of certain types of dialing technology (including autodialers) and prerecorded messages (so-called robocalls) require particular attention, as much of the enforcement and litigation in this area involves texting and robocalling.

Continue Reading Inside the Ad Law Tool Kit: Telemarketing and Texting

Continuing with its aggressive enforcement of negative option marketing, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a $35 million settlement with online digital photo and video platform Shutterstock to resolve allegations that Shutterstock violated Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) in connection with its subscription services. The FTC alleged that Shutterstock failed to disclose material terms before billing, charged consumers for products without their informed consent, and made cancellation difficult.

Shutterstock offers consumers several plans for licensing content on its website, varying in price and in the number of downloads available. The complaint alleges that Shutterstock offered most of its content through online subscriptions since at least 2020.

Continue Reading Shutterstock Settles with FTC for $35 Million for Subscription and Negative Option Marketing Practices

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Illinois attorney general filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against Premium Home Service (PHS) and its owner. The complaint alleges that the defendants created thousands of online business listings for purported home repair companies and posted fabricated five-star customer reviews associated with those businesses.

On the same day, the Minnesota attorney general filed a parallel action in state court based on similar alleged conduct, underscoring the potential for overlapping federal and state enforcement.

Continue Reading FTC and State AGs Target Reviews and Deceptive Business Listings in Home Services

A recent review of civil filings in Washington, DC reveals a conspicuous pattern challenging strike-through pricing: a single nonprofit plaintiff, represented by a small group of attorneys, has filed more than 150 lawsuits against online retailers across the country—many of them small businesses.

Surge in DC CPPA Pricing Lawsuits

A DC-based organization is filing the wave of lawsuits under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA). The lawsuits challenge so-called reference pricing, strikethrough, or “sale” pricing. They allege misleading price comparisons, failure to disclose material facts, and ambiguous representations that tend to mislead. The letters typically seek statutory damages of $1,500 per product purchased, plus attorneys’ fees. The plaintiffs allege that selling into DC is enough to create nationwide exposure.

Continue Reading Online Retailers Face Rising Risk from Strike-Through Pricing Claims

New York City is poised to strengthen local enforcement of autorenewal and subscription programs, largely mirroring and operationalizing requirements already imposed under New York’s autorenewal law.

On April 8, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), led by Commissioner Samuel Levine, published a proposed “Click-to-Cancel” rule that would require any business offering autorenewal programs to New York City consumers, regardless of where the business itself is located, to make canceling subscription services as easy as enrollment.

Continue Reading New York City Proposes Strict Click-to-Cancel Subscription Requirements

Join us as we offer a sneak peek into select chapters from the newly released 14th edition of Venable’s Advertising Law Tool Kit, which helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Want more? Click here to download the entire Tool Kit.

Commercial email marketing poses private litigation risks and regulatory hurdles that should be considered before launching any campaign to ensure compliance. The Federal Trade Commission Act requires truthful and non-misleading advertising, and the Federal CAN-SPAM Act prohibits false or deceptive email headers (which are generally defined as the sending domain names and “from” lines) and subject lines, requires opt-out options, and mandates identification of commercial emails as advertising.

Continue Reading Inside the Ad Law Tool Kit: Email Marketing

After the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the plaintiffs’ bar has found a new hook for challenges affecting retailers. The litigation risk is landing not just on importers seeking refunds from the government, but on retailers, marketplaces, and service providers that passed tariff costs through to consumers. Unfortunately, this means that many companies affected by the tariffs in the first instance will now be hit by another target.

On February 20, the Supreme Court held that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs, invalidating a broad swath of tariffs imposed in 2025. (Watch a recording of this webinar to learn more.) IEEPA-based tariffs were terminated shortly after the decision, and the ruling created significant refund exposure. Critically, the Court did not address how refunds should be handled. That last point is the opening plaintiffs’ lawyers are using.

Continue Reading IEEPA Tariffs Invalidated: Rising Class Action Risk for Consumer Pricing