Cameo App Violated PA Law With Personalized Celebrity Videos: AG

PENNSYLVANIA — Cameo, a popular social app where fans can purchase personalized video messages from their favorite celebrities, must clearly label videos endorsing products and businesses under a settlement agreement with officials in Pennsylvania and 29 other states.

The settlement resolves potential consumer protection and Federal Trade Commission violations by Baron Inc., which does business as Cameo, Attorney General Michelle Henry announced this week. Launched in 2017, the app allows users to pay for personalized video messages from celebrities and media personalities.

Cameo also launched Business Cameo aimed at allowing companies to pay celebrities to endorse their products; however, an investigation by several states including Pennsylvania found that Cameo failed to provide disclosures to users purchasing videos for business or product endorsements.

The app also failed to provide refunds to users who mistakenly paid for the Cameo for Business feature but were not permitted to use it, officials said.

The failures resulted in users seeing videos from celebrities who appeared to be posting positive reviews of products and services without disclosing that they had been paid to make the video, officials said.

“Cameo is a way for Pennsylvanians and businesses to have personalized access to prominent figures, but consumers deserve to know when a video they’re seeing has been paid for,” Henry said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, Cameo agreed to develop and maintain a clear and extensive system to ensure compliance with all state consumer protection laws and federal endorsement disclosure requirements.

Cameo agreed to include a watermark on all Cameo videos indicating when they are paid content. The company also agreed to monitor paid advertisements for compliance and establish reporting mechanisms for non-compliant Cameo videos.

Other states included in the complaint were Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Jersey, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.