The Ad Standard: Monthly Update - October 2026

Affordability remains front and center at the FTC. This month, the agency turned its attention to healthcare and gas costs. It also issued detailed guidance on price transparency for auto dealers that marketers in any industry might want to heed: the advertised price “must be the actual price that any consumer can walk in and pay,” with only government fees excluded. The FTC continues to consider how to combat scams and is seeking public comment on whether online platforms should help stop scammers who use those platforms to impersonate third parties by, for example, requiring the removal of confirmed impersonation scam ads.

A wave of class actions has been filed alleging “zero sugar” claims are false, following from a Seventh Circuit decision in which the FDA, at the court’s request, explained that although it had announced it would exercise enforcement discretion on whether allulose must be counted as a sugar on product labels, allulose does in fact meet its definition of a