November 30, 2022
The FTC announced that it had settled lawsuits against Google and iHeartMedia over deceptive endorsements of the Pixel 4 phone. While iHeartMedia will have to pay $400,000, Google must pay $9.4 million.
In federal court, the FTC and seven states filed a lawsuit against Google and iHeartMedia. On Monday, a settlement was announced in which Google and iHeartMedia will pay $9.4 million in penalties. The settlement does not preclude Google and iHeartMedia from collaborating on future promotions, but it does prohibit the companies from making “similar misrepresentations,” according to an FTC spokesperson.
According to the lawsuit, radio personalities were used to promote the handset, with nearly 29,000 false endorsements made between 2019 and 2020. The lawsuit has been settled, and Google and iHeartMedia will be barred from misleading the public in any future advertisements, as well as pay $9.4 million in penalties.
The suit specifically states that, despite claiming to have used the handset, the promoters in question never used it. And the FTC said the ad was deceptive, especially since the personalities never had a chance to verify these kinds of claims.
The sources for this piece include an article in XDADevelopers
