Hunton Retail Law Resource

The FDA has announced its long-awaited Rule governing when the term “healthy” can be used as an implied nutrient content claim on food labels.

The FTC announced its final Rule addressing specific unfair and deceptive pricing practices commonly used by the hotel and event ticketing industries. The Rule requires businesses to clearly disclose the total price a consumer will pay, inclusive of all mandatory fees, whenever they advertise any price for such services. The Rule also requires businesses to display this total price more prominently than other pricing information.

The inauguration of President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, will lead to a change in control of  the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). On November 21, 2024, current SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced that he will resign his position at 12:00 p.m. on January 20, 2025. The next day, Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga (D) also announced his intent to step down, effective January 17, 2025. These key departures will leave a 2-1 Republican majority at the SEC at the start of the next administration.

The Federal Trade Commission announced a penalty against online sneaker retailer GOAT for failing to honor its “Instant” and “Next Day” shipping guarantees. According to the FTC’s complaint, GOAT also violated its “Assurance of Authenticity” and “Buyer Protection” promises, rejecting or only partially crediting customers for defective products.

Resuming its efforts to combat unscrupulous cash advance practices, on November 5, 2024, the FTC filed a complaint against Dave, Inc. (“Dave”), a Delaware fintech corporation that operates a mobile application it advertises as offering “instant” short-term advances. 

In a rare 5-0 vote, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with GGL Projects, Inc., which runs the AI-enabled customer review platform Sitejabber. The Sitejabber service star-rates businesses and offers customer reviews. Businesses can create free profile pages on the Sitejabber platform, and also are able to purchase additional services like automatic instant survey review requests, marketing tools, and social media sharing to publicize positive feedback.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has continued to clarify when a court can consider the back label of a product in connection with a false advertising claim.  Misleading label information is a common basis for false advertising suits, especially under California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act. However, in recent decisions, the court has detailed new circumstances in which a label might be saved.

In a significant move, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued its final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule aimed at streamlining the cancellation process for subscription services. This Rule is a critical development for retailers, particularly those utilizing negative option marketing—where customers are automatically enrolled in subscriptions and must actively cancel to stop payments.

We recently posted an article on Hunton’s Insurance Recovery Blog about a new Illinois Appellate Court decision that offers concrete direction for retail policyholders evaluating their exposure under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).  

We recently posted an article on Hunton’s Privacy & Information Security Law Blog on a newly issued federal district court opinion citing that New York City’s “Consumer Data Law” violated the First Amendment and the regulation of commercial speech.  A federal judge declared the municipal law requiring food-delivery companies to share customer data with restaurants unconstitutional.