Happy Saturday, and Happy Halloween!
This year, I’m dressing up as Waluigi. He’s always been my favorite Mario character, and I already look a lot like him in real life, so I’m excited to dress in overalls and WAA at people a lot.
This installment is a bit shorter than normal. Not every week is full of interesting tidbits, but this way you can get back to your weekend sooner.Anyway, my goal with this newsletter is to share with you some of the things I read as I stay on top of current issues and trends for my clients.
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Here’s what I’ve been paying attention to over the last seven days:
New Lawsuits
- The maker of Jeeter weed pre-rolls is facing a class action brought by California consumers who claim the product doesn’t have as much THC as advertised.
- A talent management company is suing a beauty product brand and its CEO for over $100k in unpaid invoices related influencer marketing services.
- A model who lost a lawsuit against Twitter for copyright infringement has amended her complaint to add a defendant with one of the racier names I’ve seen on a pleading.
I can only imagine appearing in court for that defendant. “Good morning, your honor, John Smith appearing for defendant….uh, the other defendant.”
Legal News
- Smashburger ran ads saying its “Trible Double” hamburgers contained “double the beef,” but consumers in a class action said those burgers had the same amount of beef, just split across two patties, and they wouldn’t have bought the burgers if they knew the truth.
Smashburger has agreed to pay $5.5M to settle the case. - A seller of novelty drinking glasses with bullets embedded them must pay $3M to their competitor, who sued under the Lanham Act for false advertising because the losing competitor advertised the glasses as being “Made in the USA,” when in reality, the glasses themselves were made in China, but the bullets were glued to the glass in the U.S.
- Section 230 shielded TikTok from liability for the popular but incredibly risky (and in some cases fatal) “Blackout Challenge.” The mother of a child who died participating in the challenge sought to hold TikTok liable under products liability and negligence theories.
She argued that TikTok had a duty to prevent its algorithm from recommending potentially deadly content to kids, and TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations are effectively TikTok’s own publication of content. But the court ruled that the algorithm simply promotes the work of others, so Section 230 shields the platform from liability. - This is a good overview of some of the potential revisions to the FTC’s endorsement guides.
- Here is a quick high-level rundown of some of the issues to keep in mind if you run giveaways as part of your web3/crypto projects.
Off topic:
Every year, I buy the new Call of Duty release and expect it to be different in some real way, and every year, it’s pretty much the same thing. But I bought it again this year. If you did too, and you want to hop in a game some time, send me a message so we can connect.
Thanks for making it this far. Have a great weekend!
-Rob