false advertising

False advertising is an actionable civil claim under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act . A party who successfully sues for false advertising may be entitled to either damages or injunctive relief .

To bring a claim for false advertising, the plaintiff must show:

The defendant made false or misleading statements as to their own products (or another’s);
Actual deception occurred, or at least a tendency to deceive a substantial portion of the intended audience;
The deception is material in that it is likely to influence purchasing decisions;
The advertised goods travel in interstate commerce ; and
There was a likelihood of injury to the plaintiff.

Notably, the plaintiff does not need to show that they suffered actual injury from the defendant’s allegedly false advertising. That said, puffery , or claims a person could not reasonably rely upon, are not grounds for a false advertising claim.

[Last reviewed in January of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

Keywords

branding

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