Alternative dispute resolution in the advertising industry: The role of government regulation in the national advertising review council ad review process

摘要

The advertising industry has created a dispute resolution process in which one advertiser may resolve disagreements with another advertiser without the expense and procedural complexity of litigation. The process is administered by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC), an affiliation of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Association of National Advertisers, the American Advertising Federation, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, sponsors of the advertising industry's self-regulation program. The NARC disputo resolution process recently has been confronted with apparent conflicts: While competitors have challenged national advertising through the NARC process, alleging that claims are false or not substantiated, advertisers, in turn, have contended that their advertising has been approved by a regulatory agency and that that approval should preclude further review. That objection to the NARC process has been,fiaost common in the context of advertising for foods or drags that has been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Advertisers have insisted that agency review provides an imprimatur sufficient to preempt the voluntary dispute resolution process and that the NARC process should defer to the agency review.