If you’re a blogger and you receive any form of compensation to review a product, and you fail to disclose this, you could run afoul of new federal regulations on advertising.
The Federal Trade Commission announced these new rules which are part of the revisions to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. The last time these guides were revised was in 1980!
Are bloggers so influential now that they are beginning to command the attention of the FTC? It seems so. Bloggers are mentioned several times in the 81-page revisions. A blogger can still accept a free sample of a product for review purposes and not have to disclose it, so long as the product isn’t a high-ticket item. That means if you received a Lexus to review and keep, you’re gonna need to disclose that badboy.
So, what constitutes disclosure? As always, in their infinite wisdom, the FTC does not specify how the disclosure must be made. They do require it to be conspicuous. Perhaps we can juxtapose it to an Adsense block?
New rules go into effect on December 1. Initially, there are no penalties directly associated with violations. Constantly break the rules and the FTC could seek a cease-and-desist order. This is when it gets real. If you ignore the cease-and-desist and continue with your wily ways, you can get fined up to $11,000 per incident.
