Legal Affairs Committee

The Legal Affairs Committee addresses, discusses, and seeks solutions to the legal, regulatory, and legislative issues advertisers face related to challenges to their advertising content and practices. All ANA client-side marketer members with an interest in the legal and regulatory issues confronting advertising and marketing practices are welcome.

Committee Chair: Cassidy Sehgal, Vice President, Digital and Advertising Counsel, L'Oréal USA

ANA staff managing the Legal Affairs Committee are Meghan Salome and David Buzby.

Discussion Topics

• Legislative and regulatory issues affecting advertising
• Protecting advertisers' free speech rights in the courts at both the federal and state levels
• Legal challenges in managing relationships with advertising agencies and media
• Confronting copyright and trademark infringement claims
• Violations of rights of privacy and publicity
• Legal challenges in the network clearance process
• International advertising and marketing legal issues
• Emerging issues, such as the legal threats posed by digital ad fraud, online piracy, and native advertising
• Media transparency 

Leadership Initiatives

ANA Working Groups on CCPA and COPPA: ANA has recently set up two working groups, one on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the other on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rules rewrite being conducted by the FTC. These working groups began as a joint effort of our Legal Affairs and Government Relations Committees and serve as forums for benchmarking and the development of materials to inform and educate advertisers and marketers. They are open to all ANA members. Please contact Travis Frazier in ANA’s D.C. office to be added to either or both groups.

ANA-4A's Statement of Best Practices Addressing Online Piracy and Counterfeiting:  The Legal Affairs Committee was instrumental in drafting this Statement of Best Practices dealing with the issue of online piracy. Our members' ads were often appearing on sites trafficking in pirated or counterfeit media content, unintentionally providing financial support or otherwise lending an air of legitimacy to these sites. The Statement of Best Practices calls on our members to include conditions in their placement contracts or insertion orders with ad networks and others that prevent their ads from being placed on sites whose purpose is to infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. More information can be found here.