InfoBytes Blog
CFPB: Digital marketing providers/big tech liable for UDAAP violations
On August 10, the CFPB issued an interpretive rule addressing when the CFPA’s UDAAP provisions cover digital marketing providers that commingle the targeting and delivery of advertisements to consumers with the provision of advertising “time or space.” Currently, traditional marketing firms are exempt from the CFPA provided they allow banks and other financial institutions “time and space” in traditional media outlets such as television and newspapers to advertise products. The Bureau stated, however, that digital marketers go beyond this approach when they harvest large amounts of information about consumers and use this data to shape their marketing content strategy.
Under the interpretive rule, this exception does not apply to firms that are materially involved in the development of content strategy. Due to the different nature of the services provided, behavioral marketing and advertising for financial institutions could subject marketers to legal liability depending on how those practices are designed and implemented, the Bureau said. Because “[d]igital marketing providers are typically materially involved in the development of content strategy when they identify or select prospective customers or select or place content in order to encourage consumer engagement with advertising,” the Bureau explained that digital marketers “engaged in this type of ad targeting and delivery are not merely providing ad space and time,” and therefore do not qualify under the “time or space” exception. The interpretive rule noted, among other things, that while a covered person may specify certain parameters of the intended audience for a financial product, the digital marketers’ ads and delivery algorithms “identify the audience with the desired characteristics and determine whether and/or when specific consumers see an advertisement.”
“When Big Tech firms use sophisticated behavioral targeting techniques to market financial products, they must adhere to federal consumer financial protection laws,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the announcement. “The CFPB, states, and other consumer protection enforcers can sue digital marketers to stop violations of consumer financial protection law: Service providers are liable for unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. When digital marketers act as service providers, they are liable for consumer protection law violations,” the Bureau added.