by Gonzalo E. Mon and Paul Singer
In January 2022, the Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit against
Google alleging that the company engaged iHeartMedia DJs to provide endorsements for its Pixel 4 phone, even though they had never used
it. In November 2022, the FTC and several state attorneys general
announced settlements with Google and iHeartMedia over the same
conduct. Although Texas settled with iHeartMedia, it continued to
separately pursue its case against Google. Last week, the parties
agreed to a settlement.
According to the FTC and states, Google hired iHeartMedia and other
radio networks in 2019 to have DJs read ads for the Pixel 4
phone. GooglePixel 4 provided scripts that included endorsements
written in the first-person. For example: "It's my favorite phone
camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight
Mode;" "I've been taking studio-like photos of everything;" and "It's
also great at helping me get stuff done, thanks to the new voice
activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at once."
https://www.mondaq.com/article/news/1320378?q=1803232&n=803&tp=22&tlk=15&lk=109
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