Political Action Network » business

FTC To Regulate Blogs On Product Endorsement

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:27:57 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking increased transparency with product endorsement on blogs and social networks. Paid product endorsements on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social websites will need to reveal their sponsorship, otherwise they will be faced with fines, a lawsuit or other penalties.

The new guidelines will come into effect on December 1st. The FTC however has not disclosed how bloggers or product endorsers should reveal their sponsorship.

Street View By Google May Contain Privacy Issues In Switzerland

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:42:22 +0000

A government official in Switzerland is demanding that Google turn off its street view map service citing privacy issues. One cause of concern was that numerous vehicle license plates and human faces were not blurred in the street view maps. The official is asking that Google shut down the service until it conforms to Swiss law.

Google’s street-view map displays detailed street-level images of cities worldwide. Currently over 100 cities have been mapped using the street view service worldwide.

Greece’s Data Protection Authority already barred Google from photographing its streets to be included in the service.

Sale Of Nortel Sparks Protests In Canada

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:02:32 +0000

Nortel was once the object of hatred for causing the savings of many Canadians to plummet following an accounting scandal and the drop of stock prices. Now the company is a surprising object of nostalgia in protests against its sale to foreign investors.

Many Canadians are asking their government to review the estimated $1.13 billion sale of Nortel’s wireless infrastructure business to Ericsson.

New Antitrust Policy For Federal Government

admin — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:09:48 +0000

Top antitrust officials and senior democratic law makers are seeking to focus on industries that may be plagued with antitrust concerns. This is a major reversal on the previous administration’s policy of not prosecuting large, dominant companies who have engaged in antitrust practices.

Some of the cases being reviewed by the antitrust chief at the Justice Department:

Small agricultural operations may have been improperly obstructed by larger food processors. This is most notably true with the milk industry.
Compliants are being examined whether the Federal Trade Commission and consumer groups are within or unreasonably preventing pharmaceutical drug companies from marketing generic drugs.
Another case is between book publishers and Google regarding Google’s book scanning operation.
Verizon and ATT filed a compliant against Cablevision and Cox Communications, saying that they are unable to purchase sports shows and other programs produced by the cable operators.