Attorney General James Gets $100,000 From Cameo For Misleading Videos

NEW YORK New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a bipartisan, 30-state settlement with Cameo owner Baron App Inc. for failing to ensure consumers knew that videos promoting products were paid endorsements. Under the settlement, Cameo must pay $100,000 in penalties, including $25,000 to New York State, and implement programs to ensure all paid ads are properly labeled. In 2020, Cameo, a platform where people can pay celebrities to record videos featuring scripted, personal messages, launched a service called Business Cameo that allows businesses to pay celebrities to record videos promoting their products. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Cameo failed to implement measures to ensure that these videos were properly disclosed as paid endorsements, violating the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) endorsement rules and New York State consumer protection laws.

For many New Yorkers, Cameo videos are fun to watch and share, but consumers deserve to know when they're watching a paid ad or a real review, he said. Attorney General JamesVideos that are properly labeled as paid ads help consumers make informed decisions about what to buy, and Cameo has not done enough to protect viewers. Today’s settlement will allow Cameo to take steps to ensure that videos are properly labeled and consumers are not misled.

In 2020, Cameo launched a service called Business Cameo that allows businesses to hire celebrities through their platform to record videos promoting their products or services. New York State Consumer Protection Act and the FTC’s endorsement guides require that steps be taken to ensure that these endorsements are not misleading, but celebrities posted Business Cameos without making proper disclosures. Unlabeled Business Cameos appeared as regular videos of celebrities giving positive reviews of a product or service without disclosing that they were being paid to promote the product or service.

Under the agreement, Cameo is required to implement policies and programs to help users properly disclose all paid endorsements. This includes maintaining a watermark system to indicate that a video was booked through Cameo, requiring brands and celebrities to acknowledge that they must comply with rules and regulations regarding endorsements, creating a reporting system, and monitoring for non-compliance.

The attorneys general of Florida, Illinois, and Texas joined Attorney General James in completing this multi-state settlement. The states participating in this settlement are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

This is the latest action by Attorney General James to protect consumers from deceptive practices. Last month, Attorney General James secured $700 million from Johnson & Johnson for misleadingly marketing products containing talc, endangering consumers’ lives. Additionally, Attorney General James settled with the three largest wireless carriers for deceptive advertising practices and won a federal jury trial against Quincy Bioscience, finding that they made fraudulent and misleading statements about their Prevagen supplement. Last summer, Attorney General James, working with the FTC, secured $1.6 million from an online apartment finder for defrauding renters by posting unverified listings.

This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Jina John and former Assistant Attorneys General Noah Stein and Ezra Sternstein of the Bureau of Internet and Technology, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Kim Berger and Deputy Bureau Chief Clark Russell. The Bureau of Internet and Technology is part of the Economic Justice Division, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and supervised by Senior Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Levy.