Patent ID: 8639544

Claim:
A method for assessing risk of potentially unfair advertising practices associated with an advertisement, the method comprising the following steps executed by a computer: determining by the computer whether online content associated with the advertisement is associated with a product type or a service type; determining a first risk score by the computer, the first risk score comprising a product risk score if the online content corresponds to the product type or a service risk score if the online content corresponds to the service type; evaluating by the computer the online content associated with the advertisement to identify an issue of general applicability (“IGA”) based on one or more risk attributes associated with the advertisement; assigning by the computer an IGA risk score based on the IGA; evaluating by the computer the online content associated with the advertisement to identify an IGA adjustor for the IGA risk score, wherein the IGA risk score is determined using the IGA risk score adjusted using the IGA adjustor; evaluating by the computer the online content associated with the advertisement to identify an issue of specific applicability (“ISA”) based on the one or more risk attributes associated with the advertisement; assigning by the computer an ISA risk score based on the ISA; and evaluating by the computer the online content associated with the advertisement to identify an ISA adjustor for the ISA risk score, wherein the ISA risk score is determined using the ISA risk score adjusted using the ISA adjustor; and producing by the computer a total risk score for the advertisement based on the IGA risk score, the ISA risk score and first risk score.