The Federal Trade Commission’s Dot Com Disclosure guidelines, first issued in 2000 and updated in March 2013, have explained how to make consumer disclaimers on various digital platforms. The FTC has just announced that it is seeking to modernize the guidelines and its press release says it all – FTC Looks to Modernize Its Guidance…
The Federal Trade Commission has released a new publication for online influencers that lays out the agency’s rules of the road for when and how influencers must disclose sponsorships to their followers. The new guide, “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers,” provides influencers with tips from FTC staff about what triggers the need for a disclosure…
In January 2018, the New York Times did an expose on an obscure American company named Devumi that has collected millions of dollars in a shadowy global marketplace for social media fraud. Devumi sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. Drawing on…
Jeffrey Greenbaum and I will be presenting a webinar on Social Media Influencers and the FTC on Thursday, April 26th at Noon Pacific. The Federal Trade Commission is paying increased attention to social media influencer marketing. After a series of warnings, the FTC has begun enforcement actions against influencers and their advertisers. What do influencers…
FTC and Influencer Marketing with Jeffrey A. Greenbaum LISTEN/DOWNLOAD Jeffrey A. Greenbaum, Managing Partner of Frankfurt Kurnit, returns to discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) increased focus on Influencer Marketing. Topics Covered State of the FTC Honored that @POTUS has expressed his intent to nominate me as a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal…
WB Caught in Shadows by FTC Warner Brother’s popular video game Shadow of Mordor got a new audience – the Federal Trade Commission. WB promoted the game using paid influencers to post positive reviews on YouTube. This including hiring influential gamers to post videos promoting Shadow of Mordor – videos that ultimately yielded more than 5.5…
In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission updated its endorsement guidelines to, among other things, include bloggers. In 2013 it updated its DotCom Disclosure guidelines to address social media. It issued numerous warnings before finally cracking down in 2015 in the AmeriFreight matter. For the past several years, the Federal Trade Commission expressed increasing concern over the use…
FTC Spells Out Native Advertising Enforcement Policy For the past several years, the FTC has expressed increasing concern over the use of “native advertising” content that bears a similarity to the news, feature articles, product reviews, entertainment, and other material that surrounds it online. This week the FTC spelled out its enforcement position on native advertising,…
FTC GOES AFTER ROCA LABS FOR “ADVERSARIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRUTH” AND USE OF GAG ORDERS Last week the Federal Trade Commission filed an enforcement action against Roca Labs, Inc. and Roca Labs Nutraceutical USA, Inc.; as marketers of a line of weight-loss supplements who allegedly made baseless claims for their products, and then threatened to…
This week the Federal Trade Commission will have a banquet and symposium celebrating its 100th anniversary (with more than 20 past and current FTC officials). The FTC Act, which gave the agency the power to regulate “unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce,”…
FTC Issues No Action Letter Over Yahoo! Astroturfing The Federal Trade Commission has declined to take action In response to press reports that Yahoo! employees posted positive reviews of Yahoo! mobile apps on iTunes without disclosing their affiliation as required by the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines. The FTC enumerated the following factors for this decision: there were…
FTC Checks Swing Again on Endorsement Guides, But States that Pinterest Pin Constitutes an Endorsement When the FTC’s revised endorsement guidelines came out in 2009, there was a big uproar that the FTC would be prosecuting bloggers, leading Consumer Practices Division Director to record a video answering that charge head on. Since then, the FTC…
Cyber Report 