Ms. Grymes counsels clients in all aspects of regulatory compliance, with a focus on statutes and regulations enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and state Attorneys General.
Ms. Grymes has experience handling various phases of marketing products. She reviews advertisements and marketing materials for all media, including television, print, Internet and telephone, to determine compliance with relevant regulations and the risk of challenge from regulators, competitors, or consumers. Ms. Grymes challenges competitors’ advertising before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and in federal court. She responds to inquiries and complaints from regulators, competitors and consumers.
Ms. Grymes also advises clients to ensure that products on the market meet applicable safety standards, including complying with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This work includes developing product safety compliance programs, analyzing potential reporting obligations, responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, implementing product recalls, and defending against enforcement and penalty proceedings with the CPSC.
Representative Experience
Consumer Product Safety
Represented manufacturers, distributors and retailers in civil penalty investigations that the CPSC staff closed without the issuance of a penalty.Represented manufacturers, distributors and retailers in the recall of millions of products, including toys and games, home appliances, children's clothing, air filtration systems, sporting goods, and fire and security alarm systems.
Represented a national department store to settle a civil penalty investigation involving drawstrings in children's clothing.
Filed comments on behalf of a trade association of lawn and garden equipment manufacturers and its members in a regulation review proceeding.
Advertising Challenges
Represented a maker of carpet cleaners in a Lanham Act case challenging comparative superiority claims made by a competitor in connection with its steam vacuum products.Represented a wireless communications company in a network challenge followed by two Lanham Act cases challenging implied superiority and establishment claims made by a competitor in connection with a new product launch.
Represented a maker of carpet cleaners in the appeal to the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) of an NAD decision in which the NAD ruled that a competitor had provided reliable testing that could substantiate the claim that their steam vacuum out cleans all other leading brands. The NARB determined that the competitor’s testing did not demonstrate a meaningful difference between products, and therefore that the competitor did not meet the burden of demonstrating that its testing demonstrated superiority.
Represented one of the world’s largest dating web portals before the NAD in a case challenging a competitor’s claims. The NAD found that one of the competitor’s claims is expressively comparative, unsupported by the record, and outside the realm of puffery, and also concluded that another claim is an objectively provable claim that is unsupported by the record and is not puffery. The competitor discontinued both advertising claims.
Represented a chemistry trade association before the NAD in a case challenging advertising claims made by a maker of baby bottles. The claims at issue attempted to exploit a minority of scientific opinion in the sale of baby bottles that do not contain bisphenol-A. The NAD agreed that the claims were unsubstantiated and recommended that they be discontinued.
Represented a national marketer of nutritional supplements in litigation filed by the Department of Justice alleging violations of a prior FTC order.
Commercial Co-Ventures and Charitable Promotions
Represented a footware retailer in structuring and advertising a promotion for the (RED) Campaign, in which a portion of proceeds from the sale of certain sneakers are donated to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.Represented a Fortune 500 athletic equipment and apparel manufacturer in structuring and advertising a promotion in which a portion of the proceeds from specially marked products go to ninemillion.org., a global campaign founded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to bring education and sport programs to the world’s refugee youth.
Represented a mail subscription DVD rental company in structuring and advertising a promotion to benefit Feeding America.
Represented a Fortune 500 athletic equipment and apparel manufacturer in structuring and advertising a promotion in which a portion of proceeds from the sale of Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG bracelets and specially marked clothing are donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
