FTC Declines IAB Request to Postpone Consumer Review Hearing

The FTC won’t postpone its informal hearing on an NPRM on online consumer reviews and testimonials, despite a request from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the agency said Wednesday. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. IAB requested a 30-day extension, also asking the agency to reconsider its conclusion that “there are no disputed issues of material fact necessary to be resolved at the informal hearing." Agencies generally must provide 15 days’ notice in advance of such a hearing, the FTC said, and it published notice of this informal hearing on Jan. 16, 28 days in advance. In the agency’s NPRM, announced in June 2023, the agency concluded there are no "disputed issues of material fact that need to be resolved at an informal hearing.” The FTC has been “very clear” it wants to avoid exposing issues with the new rules that would block “honest opinion and violate the First Amendment,” said IAB Executive Vice President Lartease Tiffith in a statement Thursday. Just as in an informal hearing on the agency’s negative option rule, an administration judge will decide if the agency has met its burden in this case, said Tiffith: The agency is “underestimating the effects of changes to consumer reviews, and the public should have an opportunity to question its assumptions in front of an administrative judge with decision-making power.”