Legislation designed to prevent unsolicited email and mobile phone spam has been has been introduced by the Canadian government. The Electronic Commerce Protection Act will, among other things, prohibit the sending of commercial electronic messages without the consent of the recipient and will also ban false and misleading commercial representations online. The legislation is modelled on Australia’s anti-spam laws and will be regulated by both the Canadian Competition Bureau and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.
Canadian study finds ‘green’ labelling lacking
A recent study by an environmental marketing firm of over 2000 self-described environmentally friendly products has revealed that 98 per cent of these products were not as ‘green’ as they claim. This so called ‘greenwashing’ is becoming more prevalent, prompting the Canadian Competition Bureau to draft guidelines for environmental claims, which will come into force by late 2009
United States of America
United States legislation to create financial safety watchdog
Consumer advocates have welcomed a recently introduced Congress Bill that aims to curb unfair and deceptive conduct. The legislation proposes to create a regulator to monitor all forms of consumer credit, as well as payment systems such as debit cards. The proposed agency, the Financial Products Safety Commission, would be akin to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but for financial products. The agency would have the power to impose penalties, operate a customer hotline to register complaints and create rules to ban anti-consumer practices. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz stated publicly that the FTC would be 'best suited' to regulate the financial services industry. Although the FTC has broad consumer protection powers, many financial service providers are currently exempt from its jurisdiction.
Google’s book deal scrutinised by United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (US DoJ) has announced it is investigating an AUD$177 million-settlement agreement reached between Google and authors and publishing organisations. The deal has been heavily criticised by a range of non-profit third parties who fear the agreement would give Google a monopoly in the market for digitised books, particularly those where the copyright holder either cannot be found or where they have abandoned the rights.
US FTC scrutinises Kellogg’s advertising
Following investigation by the US FTC, multinational food giant Kellogg has agreed to settle charges that it falsely advertised the health benefits for children eating its 'Frosted mini-wheats' breakfast cereal. The FTC found that Kellogg misrepresented the results of a study into the benefits of eating the breakfast cereal.
US to regulate online marketing
The US FTC is planning to regulate online viral marketing that uses blogs and social networking sites for endorsements. Under the new regulations being proposed (advertising rules), bloggers would be legally liable if they make untrue statements about their products or services. This is the first revision of the rules on this kind of advertising by the FTC since 1980 and according to the FTC is needed because new forms of communication have opened up new fields to marketing.
United Kingdom
British Airways and Virgin passengers in the United Kingdom to receive refunds
A class action lawsuit has finally been settled for transatlantic flights.The lawsuit was filed after British Airways and Virgin Airlines admitted in the US and UK to fixing the price of fuel surcharges applied to transatlantic flights between 2004 and 2006. Over 100 000 UK businesses and individuals who have registered to claim a refund under the settlement will now begin to receive their refund, which will amount to around AUD$27 a ticket after a legal challenge (disputing the jurisdiction of the US courts) was settled.
