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Consumer Protection |
Overview
Consumer protection has become high-stakes poker for companies that advertise and market directly to the buying public. Government investigations, class actions and adverse publicity have followed even small legal missteps. Perkins Coie's Consumer Protection lawyers help clients avoid those missteps, and, when they occur, resolve matters quickly and in a way that preserves the company's market reputation. We handle matters in all of the major forms of media - print, radio, television and the Internet. We have experience dealing with challenges arising from all of the major consumer protection laws, including the statutes governing false advertising, commercial e-mails (CAN-SPAM), telemarketing and contests and sweepstakes. As regulations often vary from state to state, we offer 50-state surveys of applicable statutes and rules in areas such as contests and sweepstakes.
Evaluating the legal risks posed by an advertising, e-mail or telemarketing campaign requires knowledge of the government agencies that enforce the relevant laws (primarily the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and state attorneys general) as well as industry regulatory organizations such as the Direct Marketing Association and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Our Consumer Protection lawyers include former enforcement officials and others who practice before those agencies and organizations regularly. We counsel clients to avoid problems. We resolve government investigations, public and non-public. Where a consumer protection matter spills into active litigation, our lawyers have experience handling everything from simple breach of warrantee claims to complex consumer class actions. Our attorneys have handled consumer protection class actions for clients such as Qwest and Google.
Privacy has become an increasingly important consumer concern on the Internet, as has the explosion of spam. As one of the leading Internet practice firms in the United States, we advise some of the largest Internet companies in the world. We have extensive experience drafting, reviewing, and, where necessary, defending our clients' privacy and anti-spam policies and practices in court and before applicable governmental agencies.
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