Overview:
NAD rules that Apple must discontinue or modify claims regarding its advertising claims for the new Apple Intelligence features. How could a litigation survey have helped?
Consumer Surveys and Clear Disclosures: Lessons from the NAD Decision on Apple Intelligence Claims
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau National Programs issued a recommendation to Apple Inc. regarding its advertising claims for Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence is a set of new AI-powered features rolled out between October of 2024 and April of 2025. Apple made various claims about AI-powered features being immediately available at the September 2024 launch of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, including priority notifications, image generation tools (Image Playground, Genmoji, and Image Wand), a ChatGPT integration into Siri, and writing tools. The NAD inquired into the Apple claims as part of its routine marketplace monitoring program.
AI Not Available Now
The NAD found that Apple’s “Available Now” claim was misleading, at least initially, because the advertised AI-powered features were not actually available at the launch. Instead, the features were staggered out amongst software updates, and this was not clearly communicated.
Apple added footnotes to disclose the timing of the features, but the NAD found that this failed to adequately mitigate this implied claim because they were not sufficiently clear and conspicuous, and were not placed close enough to the claims. The positioning of the “Available Now” headline above a list of Apple Intelligence features led the NAD to conclude that consumers would reasonably expect all listed features to be usable immediately.
The Power of Consumer Perception
AI-powered features are being integrated into many products, and rollout timelines are becoming more complicated. The NAD made clear that consumer transparency is paramount. Apple disagrees with NAD’s findings, but has committed to the removal and modification of claims–a big price to pay for a product launch with global visibility.
Hypothetically, Apple could have used consumer surveys in this NAD case to measure consumers’ interpretations of headlines and disclosures, or the placement and effectiveness of disclosures. That kind of information helps businesses understand how consumers read their ads, and could have helped Apple show evidence that consumers were not misled. This kind of survey can also help plaintiffs prove that consumers are misled (when the data shows that).
If you are bringing a product to the global market and require consumer survey research, contact MMR Strategy Group, an IMS Legal Strategies Company.