Constitutional Law

Complying with the FTC Disclosure Requirements for Product Endorsements

By David Ardia

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.

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.

Full post as published by MediaShift Idea Lab on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).