topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 4:31 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Federal Trade Commission (USA): Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews  (Read 6319 times)

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Excellent news:

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday [10/5/09] took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.



from http://www.cynical-c.com/

Kamel

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 138
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Excellent, very glad this is in effect!

Reviews have become nearly useless all together due to companies paying people off =\
I'm the guy you yell at when your DSL goes down...

housetier

  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 1,321
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
I have read a few comments about this, and found an interesting question: what counts as a review? Is it a short message on identi.ca, a forum post, a "review" at amazon, blog posts...

Do recommendations count as reviews?

Eóin

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,401
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Though not crystal clear on the matter they do at least seem to be less worried about such things

The FTC's proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.

To placate such fears, Cleland noted that the FTC's enforcement priorities make it more likely an advertiser would be targeted for disclosure or testimonial violations than a blogger. The exception would be a blogger who runs a ''substantial'' operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Unfortunately, it's not law. Check out this weasel:

The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations.

Same old "same old" as far as I can see. :-\

NoWorrys.gifFederal Trade Commission (USA): Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews