To run a compliant company, business owners need to have basic knowledge of laws and legal principles in numerous areas, such as tax law and employment law. While these may be the most obvious points of legal inquiry that a new business owner looks into, you can’t overlook rules and requirements in various other fields of law, like communications law and insurance law.

Communications law deals with any form of communication, including the use of information-sharing technology. If your business uses technology for things like advertising or marketing, you’ll want to brush up on your communications law knowledge.

Business Communication Basics

What does running a business have to do with communications? Think about all the ways your business uses technology to spread information or communicate with your audience or prospective clients. Some common types of business activities and publications that fall under communications law include:

Online content, including your company’s website and all marketing content such as emails, social media posts, and ads

Signs and billboards

TV commercials

Radio ads

PR statements

Interviews for local news

If you own a business, the chances are you use at least a handful of these forms of communications, if not all of them. As such, it’s essential to know the legal liabilities you may be subject to when using these forms of communication.

Legal Liabilities of Public Communications

Whenever you create an ad or content marketing campaign, you have to follow certain rules and regulations. Making these mistakes can result in costly fees or even lengthy legal battles. Some of the most common liabilities for businesses include:

Copyright Infringement– Copyright infringement means that your business used someone else’s protected work or intellectual property without their permission. This is one of the most common legal issues businesses face, as many businesses unintentionally commit it. However, courts don’t care about intent; even if you didn’t know you were breaking copyright, you could be held legally and financially responsible for the error.

False Advertising– A business commits false advertising if they release ads or other published materials making false or unsubstantiated claims or misrepresenting their products. Illegal practices include deceptive descriptions, pricing, measuring, comparisons, and guarantees.

Libel– While libel and slander are both forms of defamation, they don’t mean the same thing. Libel refers to any defamatory statement that’s written down. For instance, you could run a print ad making a false or negative claim against a competitor, and if it’s untrue, they could sue you for defamation.

Slander– Slander is verbal defamation, such as disparaging a competitor with a false claim in a commercial.

Invasion of Privacy– Invasion of privacy means you acted in a way that harmed the privacy of your clients, employees, or another party. Common examples include publicly disclosing information about your client, appropriating someone’s name for your gain, or publicly painting someone in a false light.

Best Practices for Avoiding Accusations

The best way to win a lawsuit or fight fees is by avoiding them entirely. While that’s often easier said than done, there are many practical and easy things your business can do now to avoid unintentionally violating the laws listed above. For example, you can create workplace policies to:

Avoid Spam– Sending out spam emails can result in penalties as high as $43,280 per violation. To comply with the CAN-SPAM Act and avoid accusations of wrongdoing, businesses should: ensure emails have a clear subject message, plainly state if the email is an ad, include the business’s physical address, and give the recipient an option to unsubscribe.

Double-check All Images and Third-party Materials– To avoid copyright claims, your marketing team should have clear, documented guidelines that cover best practices for using royalty-free images and music. You should also educate your staff on researching their pitches and proposals to ensure they’re original.

Don’t Attack Your Competitors– Though it may be tempting, it’s usually not worth it to attack your competitors in ads or public statements. If any marketing materials compare your products or services to those offered by another business, tread carefully, as you can face claims of both defamation and false advertising if you cross the line into unproven information.

Advertising Injury Insurance

In addition to implementing the best practices described above, companies can minimize the potential damage of advertising injury claims by purchasing ample insurance coverage.

If you don’t already have a commercial general liability insurance policy, you’ll want to look into it before launching any marketing materials. What risks does general liability insurance cover? It depends on the insurance provider you decide to work with, but many general liability policies include coverage for third-party personal injury claims, third-party property damage claims, and advertising injury claims made against the business. However, it’s important to note that this insurance does not cover false advertising claims.

Honesty and Transparency

The old adage that “honesty is the best policy” applies to many aspects of running a business, including how you represent yourself (and your competitors) in public communications. To avoid costly legal battles and fines from government agencies, err on the side of caution and be transparent about the origins of all the designs, concepts, ideas, images that your business uses.