New changes to California’s Automatic Renewal Law

New change in California:

• renewal shall request an affirmative request;
• the seller company must ensure the customer’s acknowledgement;
• A cancellation method must be provided; and
• consumers must be informed of this change.

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Italy: Garante’s penalty to Telecom Italia for unsolicited marketing calls ”one of highest ever”

E 800.000 to Telecom Italia for cold calling.

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Augmented Reality: a new legal frontier for marketing?

In the UK the current Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP code) by the Advertisinng Standards Authority, there is no explicit mention of AR/VR.

Yet:

• Regarding the “Electronic cigarette advertising prohibitions” , the same authority above explicitly includes “in-game advertisements (including AR and VR environments)”, and
• even in lack of guidance, the current legal discipline describes marketing communications (i.e. advertisements) as ‘obviously identifiable as such’, therefore even a non-inclusive list of media may not stand this test.

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Mag je een aanbod zomaar intrekken?

Despite the common structure of offer and acceptance, a contract concluded electronically must also provide for seller’s acceptance (otherwise, the buyer can terminate the contract).

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Risico’s van het niet voldoen aan regelgeving door webshops

The Competition authority in the Netherlands keeps track of warnings and imposes fines. The highest one can amount to E900k.

From this week, it will also be in charge of detecting and countering internet scams.

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Overeenkomst over domeinregistratie mag stilzwijgend worden verlengd

Again from teh Netherlands: can a domain be silently renewed?

IN this case ,the consumer appealed to the Van Dam law, which applies to consumer contracts and bans tacit renewals and limits such contracts to max 1 year.

Yet, does the domain provision apply to such law?

According to the Court, not, since a plain domain (without mailbox and additional service) is seen as a single service. This is a one-off and not a subscription that renews periodically (?).

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In de fysieke winkel kan een consument een product even vasthouden of een demonstratie krijgen, maar bij een aankoop via internet wordt dat lastig. Daarom krijgen consumenten bij aankopen op afstand het recht van ontbinding (herroepingsrecht) tot 14 dagen na ontvangst van de goederen of diensten.

The Netherlands: a very well-made factsheet with periods, deadlines, exceptions, requirements/conditions to offer and exercise ones’s right of withdrawal after a purchase.

Some gems:

• A notice should be served max 14 days after the purchase,
• the recession form must be available online,
• in case of withdrawal from all of the items, also shipment costs must be repaid to the consumer, and
• refund can take place, at latest, 14 days after the notice

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Niet helder informeren over opzegtermijnen is een oneerlijke handelspraktijk

Netherlands: a TLC-shop didn’t clearly mention the notice period and therefore incurred in unfair trade practices.

For the records, the applicable law doesn’t apply difference disciplines in case of online or offline agreement.

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New law implementing EU Damages Directive

The newdirectiveintroduces a (rebuttable) presumption of harm, a right to full compensation and a limitaiton period of 5 years.

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FTC’s First Action Against a Social Media ‘Influencer’ Might Not Be Last

The recent legal waves in Europe, requiring youtuber and social media users to disclose their relationship to the company they;re paid from to post comments, has hit the US too, perhaps even sooner than the old continent.

The last case revolves around Warner Bros and the marketing campaign to promote the video game “Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor”.

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