Google, iHeartMedia Settle FTC Lawsuit Over 'Deceptive' Pixel 4 Endorsements

Google and iHeartMedia agreed to pay $9.4 million to settle Federal Trade Commission lawsuits alleging "deceptive endorsements" of the Pixel 4 smartphone.

The FTC and state attorneys general this week announced lawsuits that claim Texas-based iHeartMedia aired nearly 29,000 ads by radio personalities who falsely promoted their use of and experience with Google's Pixel 4 handset in 2019 and 2020.

According to the complaint, Google in 2019 hired iHeartMedia, the nation's largest radio station owner, as well as 11 other networks in 10 major markets, to have on-air personalities record and broadcast endorsements of the now-discontinued Pixel 4.

Google provided scripts that included lines like, "It's my favorite phone camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight Mode," "I've been taking studio-like photos of everything," and "It's also great at helping me get stuff done, thanks to the new voice-activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at once."

The radio DJs were not provided with Pixel 4s before recording a majority of the ads, though, meaning they'd never owned or regularly used the phone they were publicly championing.

"Google and iHeartMedia paid influencers to promote products they never used, showing a blatant disrespect for truth-in-advertising rules," Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "The FTC will not stop working with our partners in the states to crack down on deceptive ads and ensure firms that break the rules pay a price."

That price, in this case, comes to $9.4 million—a drop in the bucket compared to a recent $392 million Google settlement for location-tracking practices.

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"We are pleased to resolve this issue," a Google spokesperson tells TechCrunch. "We take compliance with advertising laws seriously and have processes in place designed to help ensure we follow relevant regulations and industry standards." Neither Google nor iHeartMedia immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.

Moving forward, the companies are prohibited from misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with, certain products, and must file compliance reports and keep records for the FTC.

"It is common sense that people put more stock in first-hand experiences. Consumers expect radio advertisements to be truthful and transparent about products, not misleading with fake endorsements," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. "[This] settlement holds Google and iHeart accountable for this deceptive ad campaign and ensures compliance with state and federal law."

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