Pop-up Advertisements
Pop-up advertisements are used to catch consumer's attention. A pop-up advertisement is a window not initiated by a user on the user's computer screen when a site is loaded. A user who clicks on the popup graphic is typically redirected to another website. This type of advertisement has been categorized as the villain of the marketing world.
To date, US cases have generally found that such advertising to be not objectionable: A similar result has been arrived at in the U.K.
Mouse Trapping
Mouse trapping is an aggressive technique used by some website operators that forces users to remain on a specific website by disabling the functionality of their browser or flooding them with pop-up advertisements. Whenever the user tries to leave the site using the back, forward or close buttons on the browser display screen, a new window is automatically opened that prevents the browser from leaving the site. To exit this loop, the user is forced to close the Internet connection or reboot their computer.
In an action brought by the United States Federal Trade Commission, asserting the practice was a deceptive and unfair competitive practice, John Zuccarini was enjoined from diverting or obstructing consumers on the Internet in this fashion. Zuccarini had been registering Internet domain names that were misspellings or versions of legitimate domain names-typo squatting. As a result, once a consumer reached one of his sites, they could not exit it.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
