Legislation

Subscribe to Legislation via RSS

As of January 1, 2014, California law requires operators of websites and online services to publicly disclose how they respond to “do not track” (dnt) signals, though the exact requirements vary depending on whether an entity is a first party (e.g., web publisher) or third party (e.g., ad network). The new law will not require companies to honor dnt signals.

Operators of websites and online services should be prepared to update their privacy policies.

Background

On September 27, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 370, an amendment to the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CALOPPA). CALOPPA requires online operators to post privacy policies stating: (1) the categories of personally identifiable information (PII) collected through their website or online service, (2) the categories of third parties with whom the operator may share PII, (3) the process by which a consumer may review and request changes to PII collected through the site or service if such a process is maintained, (4) a description of how operators notify consumers of material changes to the privacy policy, and (5) the effective date of the privacy policy. AB 370 will not change these requirements or the meaning of PII, but adds additional disclosure obligations described in the next section.
Continue Reading California’s Do Not Track Disclosure Bill

Cause_ribbonsToday cause marketers will have reason to celebrate in Maine, as Maine’s repeal of its commercial co-venture laws will be effective.  Earlier this summer, the Maine legislature passed the “Act to Streamline the Charitable Solicitations Act” (yes, the “Act Act,” although we will refer to it as the “Act”).  Along with streamlining requirements for charities soliciting contributions, the Act also repealed all of Maine’s requirements for commercial co-ventures, or persons or companies that “conduct a sale, performance, event, or collection and sale of donated goods that is advertised in conjunction with the name of a charitable organization.”  The most common form of this type of promotion, also referred to as cause marketing, involves advertising that a percentage or dollar amount of a consumer’s purchase of a good or service will benefit a charity.  Cause marketing is particularly popular in the month of October when it seems entire aisles of products turn pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Maine’s repeal is significant considering that Maine had previously been one of the more onerous states for cause marketers requiring that the company conducting the promotion register with the state prior to the promotion, obtain a $25,000 bond, and submit a $250 application fee.  Cause marketers also had to submit financial reports with Maine-specific information on the number of products sold and the resulting donation to charity after the campaign’s conclusion and submit yearly renewals of their registration paperwork and bonds if they wanted to continue to conduct commercial co-ventures in Maine.  All of these requirements have now been repealed.
Continue Reading Cause Marketers Rejoice (at least in Maine)

It seems these days that almost everyone is picking on Congress, so we thought we’d have a bit of fun at their expense as well. Check out this post on HuffPost, if you’re interested, that explores what might happen if the FTC were unleashed on some of the representations that Congress makes.