2. Cease and desist order. If a consent order is not signed, the case goes before an Administrative Law Judge, who may recommend a dismissal or issue a cease and desist order. The accused party must stop the alleged deceptive act immediately, but the order carries no punishment unless the company fails to comply. The judge’s decision may be appealed to a Federal Court of Appeals by either party.

3. Affirmative disclosure. With affirmative disclosure, the company can say what it wishes to say, but in order to do so, it is required to qualify it with another statement. Warnings on cigarette packages and in ads for that product are examples of affirmative disclosure.

4. Advertising substantiation. Similar to affirmative disclosure, advertising substantiation requires that if a company wishes to make a particular statement, it must include proof for that statement. The goal is to let consumers make informed decisions in the marketplace. Responsibility for providing the information rests with the advertiser, its agency, any retailers who might disseminate the ads, and even a celebrity endorser. Substantiation is designed to make sure that advertisers can support their claims before they run the ads.

5. Corrective advertising. The most stringent remediation the FTC can impose is corrective advertising, which forces an advertiser to rectify misleading statements from previous advertising. The advertiser has to admit publicly that the product claims it had previously made were wrong. This is the only remedy that acknowledges that consumers may still remember the effects of any deceptive advertising.

In imposing corrective advertising, the FTC has determined that simply stopping the deceptive or misleading advertisement is not sufficient to stop the deception.