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NY Attorney General sues Juul for deceptive marketing
Yesterday, California filed a lawsuit against e-cigarette company Juul for allegedly targeting underage Californians with its marketing and sales practices. Today, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a similar lawsuit against Juul "for deceptive and misleading marketing of its e-cigarettes, which contributed to the ongoing youth vaping epidemic in New York State."
Parents groups take concerns about YouTube Kids to the FTC
There are plenty of rules about what you can and can't do on kids' tv, but not a lot of those rules automatically carry over to the internet. That's why a posse of advocacy groups is asking the FTC to investigate if YouTube's kids-only service is breaking laws on unfair and deceptive marketing. According to a report by the San Jose Mercury, these groups believe that YouTube Kids also contravenes FCC rules about advertising to young children that have been in place since the '70s.
Best Buy advertising higher than regular prices as sales?
Could some Best Buy "sales" not really be sales at all? Shocking, we know, but stay with us for a minute. As Consumerist reports, the mega retailer seems to have recently begun advertising some laptops at prices that are actually higher than their regular price, and then taking things one step further by placing "as advertised" signs on the laptops in store -- thereby giving consumers the impression that they're getting a deal. A tipster to Consumerist specifically sites laptops like the Dell and HP modes advertised for $649.99 and $699.99 in the latest ad pictured above, which are apparently $20 and $50 higher than their regular price -- previous laptops advertised at higher prices also now seem to have gone back to their regular price. Of course, all of this seems to technically be on the up and up, since Best Buy isn't actually advertising the laptops as being "on sale" but, if it is indeed a regular practice, it's definitely not doing a service to customers, to say the least. Update: So here's the deal: Best Buy is bundling 6 months of its Ask an Agent and Virus and Spyware Protection packages into the offers. Each would normally cost you an extra $20 ($40 in total) which Best Buy is now giving away for "free" with the inflated price tag. Hey, we're sure you were going to buy those anyway, right?
Dell engaged in misleading business practices, says NY judge
According to a state judge in Albany, New York, Dell and its financing arm "engaged in deceptive business practices related to financing promotions for its computers and technical support." The decision, which was just released yesterday, contained quotes from NY State Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Teresi stating that the Round Rock mega-corp dabbled in "repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates." The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year, and while Mr. Cuomo was understandably delighted with the outcome, a Dell spokesman made clear that it didn't agree with the decision and it would be "defending its position vigorously." As for potential restitution for NYers, we won't know any of that until further proceedings are held.[Thanks, Nate]
XM hit with false advertising lawsuit over "commercial free" claims
Talk about a company that can't stay out of the courtroom. Yet again, we've got XM headed back for another round of sticky legal action, and while we highly doubt the firm's lawyers are done digesting the NMPA suit from less than a month ago, now it's being forced to deal with an Arkansas man's allegations in US District Court. Matthew Enderlin is apparently quite upset with XM's "false claims of commercial free music," as he adumbrates that the channels actually do include "promotional and advertisement segments." Unsurprisingly, XM has said the suit is "without merit," but Mr. Enderlin isn't backing down; au contraire, he's actually seeking to "have the suit certified as a class-action suit so all XM Radio customers can be considered plaintiffs." Bet you weren't expecting to join in on the fun yourself, eh?[Via Orbitcast]
