Being aware of changes to business law can help avoid litigation

Whether you’re a privately owned business or a large corporation, chances are you have probably taken steps to make sure that you are in compliance with all facets of the law. You have probably taken these steps because you know how costly and damaging civil litigation can be for a company, which isn’t something you want to encounter down the road if you can help it.

One area of the law that some companies can encounter issues with is advertising. From the numerous lawsuits against companies who use the term “evaporated cane juice” to the recent settlement with Target for false-advertising, changes in technology that are unsupported by the law are resulting in civil litigation that oftentimes leave businesses realizing too late that they were not in compliance with the law, even though they were trying to.

This issue has forced the Better Business Bureau to make changes to its Code of Advertising recently. The hope is that these changes will provide businesses across the county with a better “set of advertising standards” that now account for advancements in technology that might have otherwise led to claims of false advertising.

Some of the updates to the code, which were outlined in a Business News Daily article, clarify how businesses should advertise on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and what claims they are allowed to make and what they are allowed to omit from advertisements.

The fear of eventually facing a false advertisement claim is not something most business owners here in California want to see. The help of a lawyer and a review of the Better Business Bureau’s Code of Advertising can help make sure this doesn’t happen to you down the road.