Minneapolis advertising companies have finally secured a major victory with a $3 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The settlement resolves the FTC’s complaint that the ad platform was misleading consumers about the amount of advertising they received for a range of products.
In a statement, Minneapolis-based BBDO announced the settlement.
The FTC said that in December 2015, the company began a program to collect consumer data that would allow them to better understand how the marketplace was being used to generate advertising dollars.
This data would allow BBDO to improve the way it manages its ads.
The company was also allowed to share the data with advertisers in the U.S. and other countries.
The agency said the settlement included the following: BBDO will pay a $1.2 million fine to the FTC and will be subject to other civil penalties, including a fine of up to $50,000 per violation.
BBDO also agreed to implement a compliance program to prevent future violations and take further action if it continues to violate consumer privacy.
In addition, BBDO agreed to cease collecting personal information from users and users of BBDO-branded products for two years.
The settlement resolves complaints that the BBDO platform, as well as other advertising platforms, were misleading consumers by including an implied commitment to deliver advertising that would be delivered to the intended audience and to collect certain consumer data.
The Commission alleges that BBDO violated its promise to collect data about its users’ browsing activity to inform ad choices that would help advertisers target advertising to consumers.
This is the second big win BBDO has made against the FTC in less than a year.
The platform is under fire for its data collection practices and for failing to stop ad fraud.
In April, BBD announced it was ending its “bulk” collection of consumer data on its platforms.
That means that it would no longer collect the browsing data of millions of people but instead would only collect data on the people who had purchased specific items or engaged in specific activities.
The new settlement also resolves complaints from other advertising companies that BBD violated the FTC order by collecting user data without their permission.
More than 500 advertising companies submitted comments on the settlement, which will now be voted on by the FTC.
The commission’s complaint against BBD alleges that the company collected and sold advertising data without permission from advertisers.
According to the settlement agreement, BBB-branded and non-BBB-brand products will be free of the BBDo data collection and will no longer contain BBDo content.
The ad platform will also stop collecting personal data from users who have opted out of BBD’s bulk data collection program.
“We are pleased to have reached this settlement and are proud to have resolved the FTC complaint,” said Julie Sperling, chief privacy officer of BBB.
“This settlement brings a long-overdue step forward in helping consumers understand and protect their privacy and trust the privacy and safety of their online shopping habits.
The future of our advertising platform and other services, including online shopping, will be easier for consumers and businesses as a result of this settlement.”