Insights

Washington – August 15, 2024: The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 42 Crowell & Moring lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 29 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – June 24, 2024: Crowell & Moring has been recommended in eight practice areas in the 17th edition of the Legal 500 United States. In addition, partner Daniel Forman, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts Group, has been named to the Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Government Contracts.

Washington – June 6, 2024: Crowell & Moring earned 78 rankings for 67 lawyers, as well as 41 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2024 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently approved a final consent order against Sitejabber, an artificial intelligence-enabled consumer review platform, for deceiving consumers by misrepresenting that the ratings and reviews it published came from customers who actually experienced the reviewed product or service. In reality, the reviews were collected before reviewers received the products or services, artificially inflating average star ratings and review counts. 

On December 17, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Illinois Attorney General (“AG”) announced a $140 million settlement with Grubhub to resolve charges involving an array of allegedly unlawful and deceptive business practices. Even though the FTC’s proposed final rule on junk fees (also announced on December 17, 2024) is limited to hotels, live events, and short-term rentals, this settlement demonstrates that the FTC will use its broad enforcement powers to pursue companies imposing junk fees online, and that both federal and state consumer protection regulators will formulate 2025 enforcement priorities with junk fees and click-to-cancel in mind. Indeed, this $140 million settlement, of which Grubhub will pay $25 million based on its demonstrated inability to pay the full amount, is the first of its kind in that it is a joint action by the FTC and state regulators to pursue both junk fees and click-to-cancel violations.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)  recently announced that it approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”), broadening the rule’s coverage to inbound calls for technical support (“Tech Support”) services. For example, if a Tech Support company presents a pop-up alert (such as one that claims consumers’ computers or other devices are infected with malware or other problems) or uses a direct mail solicitation to induce consumers to call about Tech Support services, that conduct would violate the amended TSR. 

FASTER TECH/TOUGHER REGS: NAVIGATING THE NEW COMPLIANCE LANDSCAPE: The 2021 ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference will provide learnings and practical advice from deep dives on the broadest variety of today's marketing, advertising, and privacy legal concerns, including the onslaught of state and international privacy restrictions, social media, influencer, real-time, retail store, and entertainment and experiential marketing.

This two-day conference will bring together prominent practitioners and thought leaders from the food and dietary supplements industry to address the most pressing issues in advertising, labeling, and litigation.

In 2018, for the first time since it was founded in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission seated five brand new Commissioners. While the settlements that have been publicly announced since the new Commissioners took their posts have not indicated a shift in enforcement priorities, the direction and focus of the “new” FTC has yet to reveal itself.

Please join Chris Cole, Jim Flood, and Holly Melton, for the webinar, “Activist Groups, Congress, and Government Investigations: 3 Threats for Consumer Protection Lawsuits.” The event will be on Oct. 12 at 11am ET.

The balance of power at the FTC, FCC and CFPB is shifting with the new administration. This may bring different consumer protection enforcement priorities. In this seminar, we will offer predictions about what to expect in the next two years as these changes take place. Panelists will discuss: