How Do I Comply With The New FTC Guidelines?

We continue to receive inquiries and comments on the “new FTC guidelines” and how they should be interpreted and applied to marketing and advertising. Some very good questions have arisen.

First of all the “guidelines” are not “rules”, or “laws”. They are only guidelines, and should be seen as such. There are far too many internet voices calling the FTC guidelines “rules” and “laws”. This is just blatant misrepresentation and nonsense, especially coming form voices of authority and perceived sound judgment.

Being only guidelines, the call to action by marketers, advertisers, and their affiliates is to be in compliance by December 1^st 2009, that everyone affected be actively engaged in trying to follow the guidelines by this date.

If your website, blog or advertising medium is actively engaged in trying to conform to the guidelines then you should not have to worry very much. It is not going to be put to test unless you, or those that you are an affiliate for, are reported for deceptive advertising. Any complaints will get you noticed, and the FTC may come sniffing at your doorstep.

The major attention and concern that the new FTC guidelines address, directly affect testimonials and endorsements. If you do not use these in your marketing campaigns then the guidelines will have less effect upon you.

You should play it safe and comply with disclosures within your advertising, or in a closing statement that you will receive compensation if a consumer buys a product through your link or website.

You should also be very careful in endorsing a product which you have not tried yourself and do not use yourself. This can have the same repercussions if you are called to task and asked to divulge your use of the product.

This is not spelled out in easily understood language, but to be compliant and not take the risk of some kind of action from the FTC, it is advisable to be proactive and address this now before any such action ever presents itself.

You can also elect to not make a claim that you are going to receive compensation for a review of a product, especially if you were not given the product to review, or if you did in fact purchase the product, and did not receive it for free or as a gift, and just like the product and feel that it is a good value for the investment.

Until these types of situations are brought up in actual case studies, no one can confidently say what will be allowed and what will be considered a violation of the new FTC guidelines.

Where it gets sticky is that you can not make a testimonial about a product that is not generally held to be an expected result. This is “generally expected results, or performance,” by the public. If you do make such claims in your endorsement or testimonial, then you will need to be able to reveal the results, and why they are typical, if the FTC asks you to produce them.

We did mention in a previous article that the FTC is not waiting for December 1^st to begin their investigations. They are currently recording the websites, blogs, and advertisers, which are being reported to them for these types of violations.

The safest procedure is to be proactive and change all of your ads, testimonials, and endorsements that are currently being displayed to comply with the new guidelines. If you do this, and still receive complaints after the deadline, then you could be looked upon in a favorable light and probably get off with a warning, allowing you the extra time to become compliant.

If you are a Blogger that actively recommends and endorses products, you should go back through all of your posts and correct them, to reflect that you will receive compensation from the owners or publishers of the products. You can do this by adding a small disclosure after the post or within the post in question. There is also a plugin for WordPress blogs that can make it easier for you. http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/add-signature-plugin-for-wordpress/

You can also elect to create a disclosure page that reflects all of this in one place. Be sure to add any affiliations that you are currently displaying anywhere on your site within this disclosure. This may be acceptable or may not be. Until it is put to test, it will remain one of the areas of vagueness that the new guidelines pose.

We are not attorneys and can not give you legal advice or representation. Our advice is based upon our reading and interpreting the new FTC guidelines. Until the guidelines are measured and tested in a court of law or by a suit that ends in arbitration or settlement we can only evaluate the guidelines with the same ability as the general public.

This is our disclaimer.

You can read the new FTC guidelines here.

You can read our update here:  What Are The New FTC Blogger Guidelines?

Please leave a comment.