Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Anushka R. Stein

After a period of regulatory review under Chairman Andrew Ferguson, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule (COPPA Rule or the Rule), which was last updated in 2013. As we reported earlier this year, the FTC finalized its most recent updates to the COPPA Rule on January 16, 2025. However, that version of the amended Rule was not published before President Trump took office on January 20, 2025, and ordered a freeze on “publishing any rule to the Office of the Federal Register until a new agency head appointed or designated by the President reviews and approves the rule.” Accordingly, the FTC, now under Chairman Ferguson, once again reviewed and approved amendments to the COPPA Rule with minor changes to the version approved during the Biden administration. The amended Rule will go into effect on June 23, 2025, although most of the substantive requirements are effective April 22, 2026.

To read the full article, please click here.

Photo of Sheila Millar

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) is asking members of the public to weigh in on whether tech platforms restricted or blocked their access because of content they posted on those platforms. The FTC issued a Request for Information (RFI) on February 20, 2025, to “better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade (such as by “demonetizing” and “shadow banning”) users’ access to services based on the content of the users’ speech or their affiliations, including activities that take place outside the platform” and how such actions may violate federal law. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson commented in the press release accompanying the RFI that “tech firms should not be bullying their users …This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”

In issuing the RFI, the Commission is following a long-held FTC tradition of carrying out investigative groundwork on an issue before it issues a potential regulatory rule, and the RFI is simply an initial investigation. But the inquiry raises questions about the scope of First Amendment rights of platforms and the reach of the FTC Act.

The RFI has thus far received over 1,000 comments. Stakeholders interested in submitting feedback have until May 21, 2025.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Antonia Stamenova-Dancheva

Keller and Heckman Partner Sheila Millar and Counsel Antonia Stamenova-Dancheva authored the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) Working Paper, “Passing the Buck on Recycling: Textiles as a Case Study of State EPR Laws.” The article reviews international and domestic concerns over textile waste, provides an overview of California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 (RTRA), and offers a few observations of the practical implications of RTRA and other Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes on businesses.

To read the full article, please click here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Tracy Marshall

A new year. A new administration in Washington. While protecting kids and teens is likely to remain an issue that drives legislation, litigation, and policy discussions in 2025, issuance of 1,000 Executive Orders on day one of the Trump Administration may result in new or changed priorities and some delay in the effective date of the recently updated Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Final Rule).

We start with a recap of significant actions affecting kids and teens from the beginning of 2024 to the end of the Biden Administration in January 2025 and some early action by the Trump Administration.

Read the full publication here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Tracy Marshall

As we recently reported, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) finalized updates to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Final Rule or Rule) on January 16, 2025, and the updates were due to take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. However, an Executive Order issued by President Trump on January 20, 2025, freezes “proposing or issuing any rule or publishing any rule to the Office of the Federal Register until a new agency head appointed or designated by the President reviews and approves the rule.” The Executive Order means that publication of the amended COPPA rule will likely be delayed, and the Rule may still be subject to change. Read more here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Tracy Marshall

After a process that began back in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) unanimously approved a revised Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule or Rule) on January 16, 2025. The Rule was based on comments responding to the FTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued January 11, 2024. This is the first revision to the COPPA Rule since 2013.

The COPPA Rule implements the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and imposes certain requirements on businesses (referred to as “operators”) regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of children’s personal information. While the changes to the Rule are not as far-reaching as they might have been (some proposed provisions in the January 2024 NPRM, including changes related to edtech, did not make it into the final version of the Rule), the modifications to the Rule impose a number of important new requirements on operators that will require action. Read more here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Antonia Stamenova-Dancheva

Competition Bureau Canada (the Bureau) announced just before Christmas that it is seeking public comments on draft guidelines (the Guidelines) for assessing environmental claims for compliance with Canada’s Competition Act (the Act). The Act was amended in June 2024 by adding two specific provisions to existing general prohibitions for false and misleading representations and unsupported performance claims to address environmental claims. Under the recent amendments, marketing claims about the environmental benefits of a product must be based on “adequate and proper testing” conducted before the claim is made, and claims about the environmental benefits of a business or business activity must “be based on adequate and proper substantiation in accordance with an internationally recognized methodology.”

The proposed Guidelines are based on six high-level principles aimed at ensuring that environmental claims comply with all of the Act’s provisions, including the recent amendments. Read more here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Antonia Stamenova-Dancheva

California recently became the first state to adopt an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles by adopting Senate Bill 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 (the RTRA or Act). Specific requirements will become effective in 2026. EPR is a regulatory approach that shifts the burden of recycling and reuse of products away from local governments and consumers to manufacturers for the entire lifecycle of a product. The EPR approach aims to reduce landfill waste, promote recycling and reuse, and encourage innovation in product design and disposal. While this policy concept is not new—EPR programs for products such as electronics, mattresses, carpeting, and packaging are already active in the U.S. and EU—no such scheme for textiles currently exists in either jurisdiction. That is now changing. Read more here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Antonia Stamenova-Dancheva

On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) approved a final rule to implement electronic filing (eFiling) of certificates of compliance (CoC) for imported consumer products that are subject to a CPSC rule, ban, standard, or regulation (Final Rule). A 24-month effective date will apply to covered consumer products imported into a Foreign Trade Zone.

Currently, importers of regulated products are required to create and maintain CoCs attesting to compliance with mandatory requirements applicable to their products, but a CoC need not be filed at the time of importation. CPSC may request a CoC—and importers must promptly provide it, typically in a PDF or paper format—after staff flags a shipment for examination. The Final Rule will change this. After the effective date, CoC data will have to be electronically filed at the time of entry by transmitting message set data into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Read more here.

Photo of Sheila MillarPhoto of Anushka R. Stein

On December 5, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published a notice of enforcement discretion under SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, which requires U.S. companies that do business in California and that have total annual revenues in excess of $1 billion to report all of their Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions annually. CARB is mandated by the law to promulgate implementing regulations, and the initial Scope 1 and 2 emissions reports are due in 2026 on a date yet to be determined by CARB. 

The notice informs covered entities that CARB will exercise its enforcement discretion to allow reporting entities to submit Scope 1 and 2 emissions reports based on information the reporting entity “already possesses or is already collecting at the time this Notice was issued.” CARB notes that reporting companies may not have time to transition to new data collection and reporting practices for the first reporting cycle. Thus, the agency will not take enforcement action for incomplete reporting during the first reporting cycle, provided that the reporting entity demonstrates a good faith effort to comply with SB 253 and retains all data relevant to emissions reporting for the prior fiscal year.

CARB does, however, warn that the December 5 notice is intended only for the transition period, and the agency encourages businesses “to use this period to move toward full compliance as quickly as possible.” CARB plans to provide details on reporting for subsequent years through its rulemaking process.