In a rare course correction, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reopened and vacated its 2024 consent order against Rytr LLC, a generative AI-powered company. The unusual move reflects a significant strategic reset of how federal regulators will approach AI technology, especially when alleged harms are hypothetical rather than concrete.
In 2024, the FTC filed…
Chris Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, spoke last week at the National Advertising Division’s Annual Conference in Washington, providing further insight into how the FTC is thinking about key issues.
Mufarrige focused his remarks on privacy and AI. He said he views the basic principles for all consumer protection…
This year’s National Advertising Division’s (NAD) Annual Conference demonstrated that the self-regulatory process remains an active venue for companies interested in challenging competitor advertising claims. Attorneys from Venable’s Advertising and Marketing Group represent both advertisers and challengers at all levels of the NAD process, and this year has been particularly busy with NAD challenges. Read…
FTC Commissioner Mark Meador spoke at the National Advertising Division’s Annual Conference this week in Washington and provided some insight into his views on advertising and consumer protection.
Meador began by noting that he was an antitrust lawyer prior to becoming a commissioner, with limited exposure to consumer protection issues. He noted that many antitrust…
In the second landmark decision this week relating to whether use of copyrighted content for training generative AI qualifies as a fair use, Judge Chhabria, in the federal court for the Northern District of California, ordered summary judgment in favor of Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta), finding that Meta’s copying of a group of 13 bestselling…
On June 23, 2025, Judge Alsup in the Northern District of California issued an order in Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC, granting in part and denying in part Defendant Anthropic’s motion for summary judgment on the sole issue of whether its use of Plaintiffs’ books as training data for Anthropic’s large language models…
On May 15, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman Andrew Ferguson testified before the House Appropriations Committee in support of the FTC’s budget request. His testimony provides insight into the agency’s downsizing and its strategic enforcement priorities moving forward.
Ferguson reported that the FTC is implementing a 10% reduction in its workforce, bringing its headcount to…
This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed order requiring Workado, a company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) detection tools, to stop advertising the accuracy of its AI detection tools unless it has suitable evidence that the detection tools are as accurate as claimed. The proposed settlement is yet another indication of the…
Join us as we spotlight select chapters of Venable’s popular Advertising Law Tool Kit, which helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Click here to download the entire Tool Kit.
Telephone and text message marketing is subject to complex litigation risks and regulatory challenges, requiring careful compliance. Federal laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and…
Venable’s Advertising and Marketing Group hosted its 11th Advertising Law Symposium at our offices in Washington, DC on March 20. The symposium brought together both business and legal professionals, including in-house counsel and marketing executives, to connect on trends, opportunities, and challenges in the industry. The sessions covered a breadth of interesting topics on the…
