(Podcast) The Briefing: Influencer Fail – ALO Yoga & Influencers Named in $150M Class Action Lawsuit for FTC Violations
LEGAL ALERT | NAD Finds Kevin Hart’s Social Media Disclosures Insufficient in Monitoring Decisions
The Briefing: How “Knockoff” Furniture Landed Kim Kardashian in an IP Lawsuit
The Briefing: How “Knockoff” Furniture Landed Kim Kardashian in an IP Lawsuit (Podcast)
(Podcast) The Briefing: Beyond the Hashtag – FTC Revises Guidelines for Endorsement Use in Advertising
Podcast - The FTC Cracks Down on Celebrity Endorsers
Hsu Untied interview with Brian Anderson, Partner at Sheppard Mullin
Is the Grass Greener? Weighing the Risks and Rewards of Celebrity Branding in the Cannabis Industry – The 2022 Cannalaw Summit: Part 2
Is the Grass Greener? Weighing the Risks and Rewards of Celebrity Branding in the Cannabis Industry – The 2022 Cannalaw Summit: Part 1
For years now we’ve been blogging about how much the FTC and even the SEC on occasion love scrolling Instagram posts to see what influencer are up to. This post is about another three letter organization who likes to scroll...more
Securities products and social media don’t always mix. Just ask any of the celebrities who in recent years have faced SEC charges for unlawfully touting crypto asset securities. In March, the SEC settled charges against six...more
On March 22, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Justin Sun, the owner of BitTorrent, Inc., a file-sharing platform; three...more
NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, known by basketball fans as “The Truth,” has run afoul of the SEC. No, not that SEC—Pierce played college basketball at Kansas in the Big 12. No, this would be the U.S. Securities and Exchange...more
The SEC has settled several cases of improper celebrity crypto endorsements over the past several years. The most recent example involved NBA hall of famer Paul Pierce, also known as the “Truth.” The crux of the SEC’s...more
On December 1, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s decision to certify a class of more than 200,000 retirees alleging that collateralized loans serviced by the...more
Online cryptocurrency promotion—and promotion on social media in particular—has garnered national media attention in recent months. First, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had entered into a...more
The SEC has rung the bell again on a celebrity touting a crypto token offering without adequate disclosure of a paid role. On October 3, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission released its order instituting cease and...more
Ms. Kardashian found herself on the wrong side of the law Monday, when the SEC entered a cease-and-desist order against her (the “Kardashian Order”), finding her in violation of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933....more
NFTs Expand on Social Media, Celebrity NFT Endorsements Scrutinized - According to reports, one of the world’s largest social media platforms recently expanded its NFT (non-fungible token) initiative, allowing users in...more
Agent Smith in the Matrix described humans as a “virus. A disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.” While not alleging all human beings are a virus, the U.S. government views John McAfee, the...more
For public and private companies in all industries, the risk of being targeted in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation is a very real concern. As new and innovative securities offerings continue to be...more
The SEC has sued “cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee” for “promoting the sale of cryptocurrencies without disclosing that he was being paid to do so.” McAfee allegedly recommended “at least seven initial coin offerings to his...more
Steven Seagal just learned the hard way that, unlike the title of his 1988 police action movie, he is not Above the Law. Unfortunately for the prolific action movie star, the SEC took notice of his recent actions and was Out...more
Strikeout for Bitcoin ETF - Another ETF bites the dust. On February 26th the SEC rejected the application of NYSE Acre for the approval of an exchange traded fund sponsored by the New York firm of Wilshire Phoenix to...more
The personal problems of celebrities are often widely publicized. An overlooked beneficiary of such publicity can be the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). News of an SEC enforcement action involving a celebrity...more
Avid readers or this blog know that the FTC spends as much time on Instagram and other social platforms as your favorite millennial, but who knew that the SEC also spends it’s working hours perusing posts on popular social...more
On November 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in a press release that it has settled charges against two celebrities for promoting investments in ICOs without disclosing payments received for the...more