Overview

Corvane Ryle's Advertising Technology & Marketing Privacy team advises the companies that use data to reach customers: retailers, brands, platforms, agencies and the technology vendors between them. Our lawyers combine privacy, consumer protection, advertising and technology transactions experience, so that advice on a campaign, a data partnership or a consent flow takes account of every rule that applies.

Retail is where these questions are most concentrated. Retailers hold first-party data about what people buy, and they are using it to build retail media networks, loyalty programs and personalized offers. Each of those uses is now regulated. Comprehensive state privacy laws in the United States give consumers rights to opt out of targeted advertising and the sale or sharing of personal data, and many require businesses to honor universal opt-out signals such as Global Privacy Control. In Europe and the UK, cookie and tracking rules require consent, and reform is under discussion.

We help clients build programs that work. We advise on consent management and cookie banners, opt-out preference signals, data clean rooms, identity resolution and audience segmentation, as well as on contracts between retailers, brands and advertising technology providers. We assess pixel and software development kit use on websites and apps, an area that has produced many wiretap and video privacy class actions, and we support clients facing regulatory inquiries from state attorneys general, the California Privacy Protection Agency, the FTC and European authorities.

Marketing law is part of the same picture. We advise on email and text marketing under the CAN-SPAM Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, on children's privacy and the amended COPPA Rule, and on the disclosure and substantiation of advertising claims, including AI-generated content.

Tomás Ellery-Vance in Washington, D.C. and Helena Strand in London lead the team, working with Grace Whitcombe and Daria Kowalczyk in Chicago on consumer protection and retail, and with Theo Abernathy. We advise Halvern Retail Group and other retailers on these issues.

Key lawyers

Our team brings together privacy, consumer protection and retail lawyers in Washington, D.C., Chicago and London.

• Tomás Ellery-Vance, Partner, Washington, D.C.
• Helena Strand, Associate, London
• Grace Whitcombe, Partner; Head of Consumer Protection, Chicago
• Daria Kowalczyk, Partner; Global Co-Chair, Retail & Consumer Products, Chicago
• Theo Abernathy, Associate, Washington, D.C.

What retailers ask us

Retail clients bring us the same set of questions, and we answer each across the jurisdictions where they sell.

• Retail media networks. How to use customer purchase data for advertising on owned channels and off-site, what notice and opt-outs are required, how to structure clean rooms and supplier data sharing, and how to avoid unfair or self-preferencing practices that raise antitrust questions.
• Loyalty programs. How to design enrollment, data use and rewards so that the program is not a dark pattern, how financial incentive notices work under state law, and what changes to points or tiers require. See our analysis of loyalty program scrutiny.
• Cookies and consent. How to configure consent for the EU and UK, what the Digital Omnibus proposals may change, and how to avoid dark patterns in banners. See EU cookie consent reform.
• Universal opt-outs. How to detect and honor Global Privacy Control across web and app, link signals to customer accounts, and answer regulators who test for compliance. See universal opt-out signals.
• In-store and app data. How to handle Wi-Fi, camera, biometric and location data, and children's data in apps. See biometric privacy and in-store technology and children's privacy in retail apps.
• Personalization and pricing. How to use data for recommendations and offers without running into personalized pricing restrictions or discrimination claims.

Representative experience

• Advised a NYSE-listed specialty retailer on the privacy design of a new retail media network, including clean room partnerships with 40 brands.
• Advised Halvern Retail Group on harmonizing its loyalty program terms and data use disclosures across five jurisdictions.
• Counseled a national retailer on implementing Global Privacy Control across its website and mobile apps and responded to a state regulator inquiry.
• Defended a retailer in a putative class action over website pixel use and obtained dismissal of wiretap claims.
• Advised a consumer brand on a UK and EU cookie consent redesign and its approach to consent rejection rates.
• Negotiated data sharing and measurement agreements between a retailer and a major advertising platform.
• Advised Larkspur Apparel on opt-out rights and sensitive data handling in its e-commerce personalization program.
• Counseled a grocery group on in-store camera analytics and signage across US states.
• Advised a marketplace on advertising disclosures and sponsored listing practices.
• Represented a fintech company in an inquiry into its marketing and data sharing practices.
• Advised a loyalty program operator on financial incentive notices under California law.
• Advised a retailer on text message marketing consent and TCPA compliance for a nationwide campaign.