Litigation

FTC to Clamp Down on Dubious Product Statements on Social Media

By John Darer

Advertisers will soon face regulatory changes that some fear will curtail their efforts to tap into the fast-growing online social media phenomenon according to an article in the Financial Times on April 3, 2009

Revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review and expected to be adopted, would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products.

The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for misleading statements they make about the products.

If a blogger received a free sample of skin lotion and then incorrectly claimed the product cured eczema, the FTC could sue the company for making false or unsubstantiated statements. The blogger could be sued for making?false?representations.

This author has written numerous posts from unlicensed and unqualified pay per posters who promote cash now pushers that are little more than digital diarrhea. Read some examples from Pay Per Post Crap. It would be interesting to see if the factoring company hiring the source of the digital effluent could have liability exposure under the proposed regulations.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).