Colorado Media Newsroom
November 28th, 2022, 06:33 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2022/11/googleiheart.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1The Federal Trade Commission and attorney generals for the states of Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas have entered into agreements with Google and iHeartMedia to settle a lawsuit for airing nearly 29,000 deceptive endorsements by radio personalities promoting their use of and experience with Google?s Pixel 4 phone in 2019 and 2020.
Google had paid iHeartMedia over $2.6 million to record endorsement reads from personalities across the country promoting the Pixel 4 smartphone as well as $2 million to eleven other broadcast groups. Google provided scripts for the personalities to use which iHeart told Google’s media buying agent requesting the devices for the talents and stating they cannot use first person tenses in the script when they have not used the product. The suit states that talents at 43 iHeart stations in ten markets (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver/Boulder, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco) recorded the scripts saying what they did with the Pixel 4 when they had not utilized the device. Those ads aired over 11,200 times between October and December 2019. Later campaigns would run into early 2020 on iHeartMedia stations as well as 58 stations owned by other companies in those markets. The personalties reads stated what they did with the Pixel 4 including taking photos at night when they had not used the phones.
As part of the settlement with the FTC, iHeartMedia is prohibited from misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with, any consumer product or service and Google is prohibited from misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with certain products. Both companies must distribute the order to certain people, file compliance reports with the Commission, and keep records to allow the FTC to ensure compliance.
A total of $9.4 million in penalties was collected by the attorney generals of Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York with both companies. Texas also settled with iHeartMedia.
The original FTC complaint can be read here (https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023092GoogleiHeartComplaint.pdf).
more (https://radioinsight.com/headlines/245545/google-iheartmedia-agree-to-9-4-million-in-fines-for-deceptive-endorsements/)
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2022/11/googleiheart.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1The Federal Trade Commission and attorney generals for the states of Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas have entered into agreements with Google and iHeartMedia to settle a lawsuit for airing nearly 29,000 deceptive endorsements by radio personalities promoting their use of and experience with Google?s Pixel 4 phone in 2019 and 2020.
Google had paid iHeartMedia over $2.6 million to record endorsement reads from personalities across the country promoting the Pixel 4 smartphone as well as $2 million to eleven other broadcast groups. Google provided scripts for the personalities to use which iHeart told Google’s media buying agent requesting the devices for the talents and stating they cannot use first person tenses in the script when they have not used the product. The suit states that talents at 43 iHeart stations in ten markets (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver/Boulder, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco) recorded the scripts saying what they did with the Pixel 4 when they had not utilized the device. Those ads aired over 11,200 times between October and December 2019. Later campaigns would run into early 2020 on iHeartMedia stations as well as 58 stations owned by other companies in those markets. The personalties reads stated what they did with the Pixel 4 including taking photos at night when they had not used the phones.
As part of the settlement with the FTC, iHeartMedia is prohibited from misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with, any consumer product or service and Google is prohibited from misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with certain products. Both companies must distribute the order to certain people, file compliance reports with the Commission, and keep records to allow the FTC to ensure compliance.
A total of $9.4 million in penalties was collected by the attorney generals of Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York with both companies. Texas also settled with iHeartMedia.
The original FTC complaint can be read here (https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023092GoogleiHeartComplaint.pdf).
more (https://radioinsight.com/headlines/245545/google-iheartmedia-agree-to-9-4-million-in-fines-for-deceptive-endorsements/)