Thursday, November 19, 2009

Avoid FTC Blogger Endorsements Violations and Fine


If you are a blogger, you are probably hearing rumblings that there is a new law in effect on December 1, 2009 to regulate endorsements and promote honesty. This law will affect bloggers as well as many other groups.

If you are a blogger, you need to be informed about the new law and how it may impact your blogs. If you receive cash or in-kind payment for blogging about a subject, you may be impacted. This includes book reviews if you get books for free, or products or services for which you receive a benefit. This includes affiliate product recommendations by website owners, bloggers or sellers.

The eagle eye is watching you. The FTC wants to create a more honest market for the buyers, and Skip McGrath has indicated that even eBay feedback may be subject to the rules. You can see Skip's newsletter for his take on the FTC Blogger Endorsements rules here.

Read more about the FTC Blogger Endorsements rules in an article we have written here.

We have a more-detailed article about how to avoid the potential fine here.
The law requires conspicuous disclosure at the time of the endorsement, not later. You might choose to review only products that you have no connection to the maker, since this might be the best way to avoid a fine. The rules include negative reviews, too, so even if you don't like the product, you will have to disclose any connection you have with the maker.

Another requirement is to disclose typical results. It is no longer sufficient to say that these are not typical results. You must give a figure that is typical. To be safe, maybe zero or one will be typical. Avoid the potential of an FTC Blogger Endorsements fine by reading the article here.

Save yourself some hassle!

Linda
cajunC

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