The Better Business Bureau and The Digital Advertising Alliance Begin Enforcement Procedures…Are You Ready?

Remember the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”), a self-regulatory body that develops industry best practices and effective solutions for consumer choice in online behavioral advertising (“OBA”). I hope you looked at their site because they just announced the next phase in their development – “Enforcement of the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.” So if joining seemed like a good idea to catch that big advertiser who wanted you to be a member and you did – you are now likely to be one of those networks, publishers or advertisers being contacted by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (“BBB”) with requests to report their compliance status, in accordance with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. You better be able to demonstrate compliance with those seven principles or that you are taking commercially reasonable efforts to get there. In particular, you are going to have to show that you are providing consumers with notice of OBA collection and use, and displaying of the DAA’s Advertising Option Icon and offering consumers that easy-to-use opt-out mechanism.