Public health advocates from around the country have sent a letter to President Barack Obama (D) urging his administration to finalize the April 2011 proposed voluntary standards for food marketing to children. The guidelines would set limits on the amount of unhealthy fats, added sugars and sodium in foods advertised to children ages 2-17. Additional information on the proposed guidelines, which were designed by a Federal Trade Commission-led working group, can be found in Issue 392 of this Update. The September 27 letter was signed by 75 individuals claiming expertise in nutrition, marketing, medicine, and public health, including Kelly Brownell, Director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity; anti-tobacco attorney Richard Daynard, Director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute; Frank Hu, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health; Marion Nestle, New York University Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies; and Juliet Schor,…
Category Archives Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed amendments to rules issued under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires the owners and operators of websites intended for children younger than age 13 to obtain “verifiable consent from parents before collecting, using, or disclosing such information from children.” The amendments apparently seek to address recent changes in how children access the internet as well as innovations in social media and other online services. According to a September 15, 2011, FTC press release, the proposal would modify the COPPA rule in five areas: (i) “definitions, including the definitions of ‘personal information’ and ‘collection’”; (ii) “parental notice”; (iii) “parental consent mechanisms”; (iv) “confidentiality and security of children’s personal information”; and (v) “the role of self-regulatory ‘safe harbor’ programs.” Notably, the amendments would expand the definition of “personal information” to include “geolocation information and certain types of persistent identifiers used for functions other…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a staff advisory opinion informing the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) that staff does not have any “present intention” to recommend that FTC bring an enforcement action against a CBBB plan to hold companies “engaged in online behavioral advertising” (OBA) accountable for compliance with self-regulatory principles issued in July 2009 and administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). CBBB sought FTC staff’s assurance that the accountability program, if implemented, would not be subject to restraint of trade prosecution. According to the August 15, 2011, letter, “the proposed accountability program is intended to increase transparency and consumer control of OBA, which has the potential to increase consumer welfare, and there appears to be little or no potential for competitive harm associated with the proposed accountability program.” The principles require companies that engage in OBA to notify consumers they are doing so and…
“House Republicans are siding with food companies resisting the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure them to stop advertising junk food for children,” writes Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in a July 6, 2011, article examining the efforts of individual legislators to stymie proposed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) food marketing guidelines. According to Jalonick, while food companies have lobbied “aggressively” against the proposal, Republican representatives have sought to include a provision in next year’s FTC budget “that would require the government to study the potential costs and impacts of the guidelines before implementing them.” As Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) explained, the guidelines might otherwise “lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government” on those who do not conform to the voluntary measure. But consumer advocates like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have disputed this reasoning. “The industry is exaggerating the influence of these voluntary regulations to gin…
An administrative law judge has apparently begun hearing a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint alleging that POM Wonderful LLC makes false and unsubstantiated claims that its pomegranate juice products will prevent or treat “heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.” According to a news source, the government opened its case by asserting that the studies on which the company relied do not support the marketing claims and that its executives “repeatedly ignored warning signs that the marketing didn’t match the science.” Food and beverage companies and advertisers are reportedly watching the dispute closely; if the agency prevails, the companies will have to support their advertising with more scientific evidence. POM contends that its product claims are supported by $35 million in research and that the company has “sponsored or participated in more than 90 scientific investigations with over 65 studies on POM products, including 17 clinical trials.” POM will also…
Attorneys general (AGs) from 23 states and Guam have submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in response to its proposed collection of information from alcohol advertisers. The information relates to “compliance with voluntary advertising placement provisions, sales and marketing expenditures, the status of third-party review of complaints regarding compliance with voluntary advertising codes, and alcohol industry data collection practices.” Agreeing that the information collection is in the public interest, the AGs recommend that FTC “seek advertising and promotional expenditure data on an ongoing and regular basis, not just intermittently.” They also urge FTC “to encourage the alcohol industry to move to a standard limiting advertising to media where no more than 15% of the audience is between the ages of 12 and 20.” The April 26, 2011, comment further calls for FTC to “include a brand analysis in its coming report,” noting that these beverages are marketed by…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released its proposed voluntary principles for marketing food to children in an effort to encourage “stronger and more meaningful self-regulation by the food industry.” Designed by an FTC-led interagency working group with input from the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the guidelines seek “to improve the nutritional profiles of foods marketed directly to children ages 2-17 and to tap into the power of advertising and marketing to support healthful choices.” To this end, the preliminary standards would require that, by 2016, all products marketed to this age group (i) “make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet” and (ii) “contain limited amounts of nutrients that have a negative impact on health or weight (saturated fats, trans fat, added sugars, and sodium).” To meet the first principle, marketed foods must feature “at least one of…
An organization that promotes family-scale farming and organic foods has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Dean Foods, which purportedly claims that its Horizon “milk with Omega-3 DHA” products support brain and eye development in children and benefit pregnant and nursing women. In its April 21, 2011, letter, the Cornucopia Institute details the company’s allegedly false and misleading claims “targeted to pregnant women and children” and urges the agency to enjoin the company, if appropriate, to prevent further false and misleading marketing claims. According to the institute, the company is also promoting its Horizon milk as “natural nourishment . . . without the additives you’d rather avoid,” despite using a DHA oil that is “an extract from mutated and fermented algae that have never been part of the human diet.” The letter notes that in 2004 FTC questioned whether the company that makes the DHA supplements added…
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that would “establish a regulatory framework . . . under the aegis of the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]” to protect personal data online. According to an April 12, 2011, press release, the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights aims to protect consumers from “unscrupulous actors in the market” by creating “a baseline code of conduct for how personally identifiable information and information that can uniquely identify an individual or networked device are used, stored, and distributed.” To this end, the legislation would require collectors of information, such as online advertisers and vendors, to (i) “implement security measures to protect the information they collect and maintain”; (ii) “provide clear notice to individuals on the collection practices and the purpose for such collection”; and (iii) “collect only as much information as necessary to process or enforce a transaction or deliver a…
The Cornucopia Institute, a consumer watchdog and proponent of “family-scale farming,” has reportedly filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging that an Oregon-based cereal maker is misleading consumers with its “all natural” product claims. According to the institute, Hearthside Food Solutions, which makes Peace Cereal, labels its products as “natural” and then states on its website that “natural foods are foods without pesticides or artificial additives, as well as being minimally processed and preservative-free.” Noting that the federal government has not adopted a definition of or requirements for “natural” food products, the Cornucopia Institute alleges that by using conventionally grown food ingredients, Hearthside is selling products routinely sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Peace Cereal was apparently certified organic in the past, but has not been since 2008. Yet, according to the Cornucopia Institute, stores in several states continue to carry “organic” signs on shelves containing nonorganic Peace…
