Ari N. Rothman
Partner
Ari handles matters involving a broad spectrum of advertising laws, including those covering autorenewals, email marketing, consumer protections, privacy, and consumer purchasing experiences. He is skilled at navigating both federal laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and state laws such as California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law (Sherman Law). With this experience, he offers a unique perspective when counseling clients and helping them find creative solutions to complex problems.
Ari’s practice includes:
- Advocating and litigating for clients in pre-suit demands and consumer class actions and individual actions brought under
- California’s Automatic Renewal Law (ARL), including by obtaining dismissals and other resolutions before class certification
- The CAN-SPAM Act and state anti-spam statutes, such as California Business & Professions Code 17529.5, including trying a multi-million-dollar case to a successful jury verdict in favor of his client that was affirmed on appeal and obtaining summary judgments in other litigations
- The federal TCPA, including trying a certified class action to a successful jury verdict in favor of his clients that was affirmed on appeal and obtaining dismissal of a separate litigation after class certification
- Privacy statutes, including successfully resolving numerous arbitrations brought under CIPA and other statutes
- State consumer protection statutes, including obtaining dismissals and favorable resolution nationwide
- California’s Sherman Law, including successfully resolving all pre-suit demands and litigations
- California’s Proposition 65 and other state consumer protection laws
- Successfully resolving investigations before government bodies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), California’s Automatic Renewal Task Force (CART), and numerous state attorneys general
- Advocating and litigating business-to-business matters involving affiliate marketing and advertiser disputes and partnership and contract disputes for companies involved in online marketing
- Representing merchants in disputes with payment processors, independent sales organizations (ISOs), and acquiring banks concerning withheld reserves, fines imposed by credit card associations, Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants (MATCH) and Terminated Merchant File (TMF) listings, and payment processing agreements
In addition, Ari:
- Drafts, revises, and updates marketing/advertiser agreements, advertising/affiliate network agreements, publisher agreements, and employee agreements, and represents clients in negotiations concerning those agreements
- Provides compliance advice regarding advertisements created, published, and/or hosted by the client, and dissemination of such advertisements by email, text messaging, and other methods
- Advises advertising networks, advertisers, and publishers concerning asset and technology protection, privacy issues, protection of client and pricing information, and other compliance and best practices matters
- Consults with clients concerning trademark and copyright matters
Related Practices
Related Industries
Experience
Experience
Representative Matters
- Obtained a jury defense verdict in a class action seeking an estimated $1.6 billion in damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
- Obtained a jury verdict in favor of affiliate networks and affiliates/publishers in actions brought under state email spam and consumer protection statutes, including California Business and Professions Code § 17529.5
- Defeated certification in class actions seeking remedies under the TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227) and consumer protection statutes litigated to completion class actions across the country for violations of the TCPA
- Represented merchants against ISOs and acquiring banks concerning merchant account reserves, Visa and MasterCard fines, and MATCH/Terminated Merchant File (TMF) listings
- Represented credit card processors and ISOs in merchant and acquiring bank disputes
- Litigated and negotiated a favorable settlement for an ad network that sued a competitor for a misappropriation of trade secrets case involving consumer data/email lists
- Litigated and negotiated favorable settlements for advertisers and ad networks in consumer fraud actions initiated by FTC and state attorneys general, and by consumers in class actions
- Represented advertising networks in FTC and state attorney general investigations
- Litigated and negotiated a favorable settlement for an advertiser accused of infringing trademarks of a competitor through labeling products placed on shelves of major nationwide retailers
Insights
Insights
Credentials
Credentials
Education
- J.D. cum laude Case Western Reserve University School of Law 2002
- Anderson Publishing Company Book Award, Civil Clinic
- A.B. Kenyon College 1999
Bar Admissions
- California
- District of Columbia
- Nevada
- Ohio (inactive)
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
- U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska
- U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Tax Court
Professional Memberships and Activities
- Member, American Bar Association
- California State Bar
- Member, Cyberspace Law Committee
- Member, Business Law Section
Recognition
Recognition
- Legal 500, Media, Technology, and Telecoms - Advertising and Marketing: Litigation, 2023 – 2024
- Washington Lawyers' Committee, Outstanding Achievement Award (Received for work on an election lawsuit in Florida)
Community
Community
Pro Bono
- Obtained judgment after trial against Duval County, Florida for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, where Duval County purchased voting equipment that was inaccessible to voters with manual impairments and voters with visual impairments