Edited by Jeffrey D. Knowles and Gary D. Hailey

Obama Nominates Ramirez to Lead FTC

On February 28, President Barack Obama named Edith Ramirez the new Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), replacing outgoing Chairman Jon Leibowitz. By appointing a sitting commissioner to the Chairmanship, the President avoided the need for a Senate confirmation of the appointment. However, the President's nominee to fill the now-vacant fifth FTC commissionership must be confirmed by the Senate.

In the almost three years since joining the FTC as a Commissioner, Ramirez has, according the FTC's press release announcing the nomination, focused on promoting competition and innovation in the technology and healthcare sectors, protecting consumers from deceptive and unfair practices, and safeguarding consumer privacy.

Prior to joining the FTC, Ramirez was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. She holds a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and was a classmate of President Obama's. She also holds an A.B. in History magna cum laude from Harvard University.

Click here to read the FTC's press release announcing the nomination.

Click here to read the New York Times story about the Ramirez appointment.

Analysis

FDA Warning Letter Makes Shout-Out to Facebook

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a December 2012 warning letter on its website showcasing the agency's first-ever enforcement action based on a company's social media activity. In the letter, the FDA interprets a dietary supplement company "liking" a consumer testimonial posted to its Facebook website as an implied endorsement of the underlying claim content, write Venable partners  Todd A. Harrison and  Erin E. Seder in a recent post to Venable's advertising law blog, www.allaboutadvertisinglaw.com.

Harrison and Seder write that the FDA observed that the Facebook post made an impermissible drug claim by implying that the company's product was intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of a disease. While the controversial post has since been removed, FDA's interpretation that a "like" implies endorsement could be a precedent-setting action.

Click here read the full text of the post by Harrison and Seder.

Click here to read the full text of the FDA's warning letter.

Supreme Court's Amgen Ruling: What it Means for Consumer Class Actions

The Supreme Court's 2011 Dukes decision was widely interpreted as a blow to presumptive class certification, and attorneys defending class actions soon began invoking Dukes in all manner of class certification settings. Now, writes Venable partner  Thomas E. Gilbertsen in a recent client alert, many think the high court's recent Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds decision puts the shoe on the other foot.

That analysis, Gilbertsen writes, may be too hasty. Although he expects to see the case cited by plaintiffs' attorneys in a wide range of class action suits, Gilbertsen points out that the decision addresses a specific securities fraud issue. He believes that most advertising and consumer protection-related consumer class actions would likely fail the litmus test outlined in the Amgen decision.  

Click here to to read the full text of Gilbertsen's client alert.

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