• California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in partnership with the Federal Trade Commission and other state attorney’s general, announced against Google and iHeartMedia resolving allegations that Google paid DJs, predominately at iHeartMedia, to offer misleading personal endorsements of the Google Pixel 4 cell phone.
• As part of the settlement, Google will pay $9 million and iHeartMedia will pay $400,000. Both companies will also be required to comply with important injunctive terms to deter future misconduct.
• In 2019, Google partnered with iHeartMedia and other local radio stations to run an ad campaign for the Google Pixel 4 where they instructed radio personalities to describe their supposed personal experiences using the Pixel 4 despite never actually using it.
•Google ran these ads over 23,000 times in 10 different markets including more than 9 000 times in just San Francisco and Los Angeles media markets.[…]
