Court Opinion

ID: 9483177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:13:32.533376+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:28.441954
License: Public Domain

MANION,
concurring.
While I concur with the opinion of the court, I am concerned that the FTC can avoid extrinsic evidence by simply concluding that a deceptive, implied claim is facially apparent. While the FTC has expertise, consumer surveys provide at least some objective determination of what the purchaser thinks and should be considered since, after all, the consumer is among those we are trying to protect.
Moreover, the FTC’s current procedure threatens to' chill nonmisleading, protected speech. Although not all commercial speech has constitutional protection, the law has developed since this court decided that the FTC could rely on its own interpretation of ads in National Bakers Serv., Inc. v. FTC, 329 F.2d 365, 367 (7th Cir.1964), Rhodes Pharmacol Co. v. FTC, 208 F.2d 382, 387 (7th Cir.1953), rev’d in part 348 U.S. 940, 75 S.Ct. 361, 99 L.Ed. 736 (1955), and Zenith Radio Corp. v. FTC, 143 F.2d 29, 31 (7th Cir.1944): The Supreme *328Court has recognized that a free flow of information is indispensible to decisionmak-ing in the free enterprise system. See Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U.S. 748, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 48 L.Ed.2d 846 (1976). But the FTC jeopardizes this flow by relying on the FTC commissioners' subjective interpretation to determine whether an ad, while literally true, implies a false message. Advertisers will be unable to predict whether the FTC will find particular ads misleading. Pre-dissemination surveys showing consumers are not misled will be useless since the FTC is free to ignore any such extrinsic evidence and rely on its subjective judgment that consumers may be misled. Advertisers unwilling to gamble with a multi-million dollar ad campaign have essentially two choices: (1) submit every campaign to the FTC in advance or (2) disseminate ads that say little or nothing about a product or service. An advertiser will not want to risk producing comparative ads which the FTC may ultimately find to imply false, unintended messages.
In this case, the panel’s opinion correctly concludes that Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, 471 U.S. 626, 105 S.Ct. 2265, 85 L.Ed.2d 652 (1985) controls the extrinsic evidence issue. The Supreme Court did determine that consumer surveys are not compelled by the first amendment when the “possibility of deception is as self-evident as it is in [Zauderer].” Id. 471 U.S. at 652, 105 S.Ct. at 2282. In both this case and Zauderer, an omitted piece of information led to an implication which turned an ad that was literally true into a potentially deceiving ad. But it is important to note that neither this case nor Zau-derer gives the FTC leave to ignore extrinsic evidence in every case.
Unfortunately, judicial groping for a distinction between cases where extrinsic evidence is necessary and those where it is not is leaving both advertisers and the FTC uncertain. All Zauderer tells them is that extrinsic evidence is not needed when the “possibility of deception is as self-evident as it is in [Zauderer ].” Id. All this court tells them is that the FTC need not rely on such evidence if the “implied claims [are] reasonably clear from the face of the ads and not unpredictable.” Op. at 321. Rather than leaving judges to hew the contours of this issue, the FTC would be well-advised to take this court’s suggestion — apply its expertise and develop a consumer survey methodology that advertisers can use to ascertain whether their ads contain implied, deceptive messages.