Trafficschool.com, Inc. v. Edriver, Inc

In Trafficschool.com, Inc. v. Edriver, Inc. (C.D.Cal. 2008) 633 F.Supp.2d 1063, an Internet provider of consumer referrals to traffic schools and driver's education classes was found liable for false advertising under the Lanham Act. The plaintiff had alleged that the defendant's Web site, DMV.ORG, contained several false statements. After a court trial, the district court concluded that although none of the challenged statements were "literally false," the evidence showed that one or more of them was "'literally true but likely to mislead or confuse consumers'" to believe that the defendant's Web site was owned by or affiliated with the government. (633 F.Supp.2d at p. 1074; see id. at pp. 1075-1080.) Edriver does support the proposition that a false statement can either be literally false or literally true but materially misleading. (Edriver, supra, 633 F.Supp.2d at p. 1074.) The Edriver court found that although the defendant's statements were literally true, they constituted false advertising because they actually misled consumers to believe that the defendant's Web site was an official government Web site.