FTC Compliance and Defense | Adult Attorney

Eighth Circuit Vacates FTC’s “Click-to-Cancel” Rule — But the Fight Isn’t Over for Negative Option Compliance

On July 8, 2025, just days before enforcement was set to begin, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s “Click-to-Cancel” Rule — officially known as the Rule Concerning Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Plans. The court’s decision came in response to consolidated petitions challenging the rule’s scope, legality, and procedural underpinnings. While the rule faced several lines of attack, the Eighth Circuit ruled decisively on procedural grounds, holding that the FTC failed to conduct the required preliminary regulatory analysis after underestimating the rule’s economic impact. Specifically, the FTC initially claimed the rule would impose less than $100 million in annual compliance costs — a critical threshold for determining whether additional economic analysis is required. Even after an administrative law judge later concluded in April 2024 that the rule would exceed that impact, the agency declined to revise its approach or provide the required analysis. This procedural misstep proved fatal. In their dissent from the rule’s final issuance in November 2024, now-Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak criticized the rulemaking as a “race to cross the finish line” that attempted to apply broad consumer protection mandates to the “entire American economy.” The Eighth…

Adult Business Attorney, Corey D. Silverstein – 2017 Phoenix Forum Speaking Schedule Announced

February 26, 2017
Corey D. Silverstein
2257, Adult Law, Business Law, Contracts, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Events, First Amendment, FTC Compliance and Defense, News, Obscenity

On February 12, 2017, the Law Offices of Corey D. Silverstein, P.C. announced that porn lawyer, Corey D. Silverstein would be attending this year’s Phoenix Forum. It is with great excitement to report that adult industry attorney, Corey D. Silverstein, has been invited to speak at the Phoenix Forum on multiple seminars/workshops. Here is a schedule of the seminars that adult industry lawyer, Corey D. Silverstein has accepted: Business 101 panel With extensive experience and backgrounds spanning the industry, esteemed panelists offer a glimpse into what it takes to own, operate, and optimize an adult online business in today’s diverse environment. Topics include legal issues, mobile strategies, effective billing, and payment services. When: Thursday March 23, 2017 – 12:00pm – 1:00pm Where: E – Classroom Sweets with Security panel With hackers making news each month, content, passwords and login information, credit card data, all the bits of information that reside on your site are up for grabs, unless you’ve conducted penetration tests and secured every door and window. How do you protect your consumer while protecting your business? Consumer protection and privacy are leading the conversation and can make or break your business with consumers. Panelists will discuss the best…

Say Hello to the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework

In October 2015, the European Court of Justice invalidated the International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles which were established in 2000. The Safe Harbor Privacy Principles allowed certified U.S. companies to receive personal data of EU residents in compliance with EU cross-border transfer rules. While many rejoiced the invalidation, numerous legal experts predicted that the invalidated Safe Harbor Privacy Principles would quickly be replaced. The legal experts were right. The EU-US Privacy Shield is a framework for transatlantic exchanges of personal data for commercial purposes between the European Union and the United States. After more than two years of negotiations, on July 12, 2016, the framework was adopted by the European Commission and went into effect the same day. View the full text of the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. The U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker and EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová announced the deal together in Brussels. Jourová was quick to point out that the EU-US Privacy Shield is fundamentally different from the previous Safe Harbor arrangement because of the annual joint review, which allows the EU to address any issues as they arise. Jourová went on to say “it brings stronger data protection standards that are better enforced,…

Federal Trade Commission Continues to Make Its Presence Felt

Make no mistake about it, if you are an online business operator, legal compliance should be at the top of your list of priorities. For the better part of the past decade I have preached about the importance of being cognizant of the Federal Trade Commission and its various powers. Once again, the FTC is making the front page of newspapers and is a hot topic amongst journalists. On May 9, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released its order on John Fanning’s “Petition for Review of an Order of the Federal Trade Commission.” John Fanning petitioned the 1st Circuit to review the FTC’s summary decision finding Fanning personally liable for misrepresentations made on the website Jerk.com. While the court did find that portions of the FTC’s remedial order are overbroad, the court took the time to support the commission’s findings that Jerk.com materially misrepresented the source of its content and its membership benefits. For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the FTC’s investigation and prosecution of Jerk.com, here is some background. From 2009 to 2014, Fanning allegedly operated Jerk.com through his entity, Jerk LLC. Jerk.com was a self-proclaimed reputation management website that amongst other things allowed…