FTC Enacts New Laws for Blog and Twitter Reviews and Endorsements
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enacted new regulations that directly affect bloggers and microbloggers -- effective December 1, 2009.
The new guidelines require bloggers to disclose any "material connection" to an advertiser or an entity that provides free products, services, money or other compensation in exchange for the blogger writing a blog post or Twitter post. Bloggers also have to provide accurate reviews about how a product or service they're endorsing or reviewing would work for the average user.
Compliance to the new guidelines is mandatory. If you're caught breaking the rules, you could face penalities up to $11,000 per violation.
The new FTC guidelines don't stop with bloggers and Twitter users. They also apply to local review sites, such as Yelp, and online stores such as Amazon. If the person who writes an online review is compensated in any way, then the new FTC guidelines apply. Even if it's your own product, you have to follow the guidelines!
The FTC rules are far-reaching and carry stiff penalties that the average blogger who makes a few dollars for writing a review won't be able to afford. Don't put yourself at risk. Be sure to read the complete new FTC guidelines -- disclose any reviews or posts you write in exchange for money, products, or other compensation, and provide accurate reviews. Also, be sure to read these 3 tips for publishing sponsored review blog posts.
Hey Susan, I was just stopping by to get your email and let you know I blogged about this issue over at freelancewrite.about.com— pretty interesting news, huh?
Hi Allena!
This is definitely a change that’s been coming for a long time. It will be interesting to see how well the FTC actually enforces the new guidelines.
How an american institution pretends to regulate and international media over the internet? Not only american blogs these days. Actually there are bloggers all over the world. Are they going to santion bloggers in Japan, europe and the Americas, when this places are outside their jurisdiction.
hallo ,
This is very useful information i guess it will make bloggers more conscious of what they are writing but will certainly be difficult to enact because of the international nature of blogging