FTC Says Bloggers Must Disclose Payments
Oh, I’m not at all surprised about this one. It’s been coming for a while.
But now it’s official. The FTC expects bloggers to disclose payments and freebies given in exchange for product reviews.
Reading through things, I would expect that it could be applied to affiliates as well. After all, that’s one of the major sources of false reviews.
What I think they will need to make more clear is how disclosure is done. I have a standard disclosure on this site that I may accept payment of various sorts. Is that enough or do I need to specify exactly when a particular product review is paid?
Of course, what it basically comes down to is be honest in your reviews.
But this also means that if you are selling products you need to be aware of the rules. If you pay for a review or have affiliates, you could be held responsible for false statements made about your products. That’s not an easy thing to control, but still something you’ll have to watch out for.
No doubt there’s going to be a lot of talk about this over the next few days.
Yup, I’m sure there will be a lot of talk.
I’m guessing one would need to add a disclosure to each post they were compensated for.
I have mixed feelings about this. I worry that small bloggers who are unaware of this rule might be hit with a fine.
Disclosure on a per post basis is probably the safest, and depending on how exactly they want it done, a brief, generic disclosure on the footer of each page might help for those times one forgets. Something along the lines of posts and links may or may not be paid for, etc.
But this can make things a little tricky if you just like a product you bought and don’t have an affiliate link for or any other sort of potential for consideration. Telling the difference between a “wow this is a cool product I bought” post that is legitimately just that and one that is paid for is going to be quite a challenge for the FTC.
Just another law that nobody will enforce. I plan on putting a brief description in a text widget just saying that the links above may provide compensation for sales associated through this page. The is enough discloser. I would imagine the FTC jus wants people to know that an ad may be false or misleading based on the compensation you receive for someone going there…..kinda like side affects for all these darn meds out there. We have to hear about every stupid one in every stupid commercial.
An interesting update at Fast Company. No $11,000 fines.
It will take awhile to really have any impact. But I like the idea that everyone should be transparent with what they are selling. You can have an honest review and still let people know you might earn money if they buy it.