• ADVERTISEMENT

    Complying with the FTC Disclosure Requirements for Product Endorsements

    by David Ardia
    December 17, 2009

    Back in October, the Federal Trade Commission published a set of “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”  The FTC Guidelines call for bloggers, Tweeters, Facebook users, and certain other
    online publishers to disclose any “material connections” they have with
    companies whose products or services they endorse.  The FTC Guidelines, which went into effect on December 1, 2009, also
    say that bloggers and other social media users may be held liable for making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about a product or service.

    Not surprisingly, the FTC Guidelines generated a bit of an uproar.  While some of the
    criticisms are well founded, there also are plenty of
    misunderstandings and exaggerations about what the Guidelines say.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    In order to address
    some of these misunderstandings, yesterday the Citizen Media Law Project published a guide to the FTC Guidelines, entitled Publishing Product or Service Endorsements, that explains what types of publishing activities are covered by
    the Guidelines, what constitutes a product or service “endorsement,”
    and how to go about disclosing a relationship.  Our new guide also looks at recent public statements from FTC
    staff suggesting that the agency is interested in educating rather than
    suing bloggers and social media users.

    The new guide to the FTC Guidelines, which is part of our legal guide series on Risks Associated with Publication, is available here.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    Tagged: advertising blogs cmlp legal liability twitter

    Comments are closed.

  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • Who We Are

    MediaShift is the premier destination for insight and analysis at the intersection of media and technology. The MediaShift network includes MediaShift, EducationShift, MetricShift and Idea Lab, as well as workshops and weekend hackathons, email newsletters, a weekly podcast and a series of DigitalEd online trainings.

    About MediaShift »
    Contact us »
    Sponsor MediaShift »
    MediaShift Newsletters »

    Follow us on Social Media

    @MediaShiftorg
    @Mediatwit
    @MediaShiftPod
    Facebook.com/MediaShift