FTC Advertising Rules Archives - Page 5 of 7

The Future of the Internet

Mises Economics Blog: “There’s concern throughout the Internet after the Federal Trade Commission announced today

[October 5, 2009] that it has the power to regulate blogs, specifically blogs that endorse commercial products. The unelected FTC – composed entirely of Bush appointees – now mandates that “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” This is merely a first step towards regulating the content of blogs themselves, as anyone who offers a personal testimonial about any product will be liable, under the Federal Trade Commission Act, should the FTC disagree with your personal experiences.

If you’re wondering just how big a mess the FTC can make, consider a decision published just last week by D. Michael Chappell, the FTC’s chief administrative law judge. Judge Chappell caught FTC prosecutors in a blatant attempt to lie their way out of a bad situation arising from yet another misguided attempt to micromanage the World Wide Web. It’s a case that demonstrates the FTC’s unique combination of stupidity and narcissism.

FTC Reassures Bloggers – Big Brother Isn’t Watching

The Blog of LegalTimes: “Bloggers of the world, relax – the Federal Trade Commission is not out to get you. That was the message from Mary Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. In a conference call for reporters today, Engle aimed to set the record straight after a flurry of news stories (not to mention blogs and tweets) about the FTC’s new advertising guidelines that were, as she put it, ‘all wrong. We are not going to be patrolling the blogosphere,’ she said. ‘We are not planning on investigating individual bloggers.'”

Breadth of New FTC Blogger Regs

Overlawyered.com: Walter Olson worries about the chilling effect the new FTC ad rule will have on people and the FTC’s selective enforcement of the regulation. I agree.

An editorial in today’s
[October 12, 2009] New York Times, despite a bit of concessionary fluff about not wanting ‘to hamstring the ability of bloggers and twitterers to report and comment about the world,’ enthusiastically endorses the new rules. It says not one word about the dangers of overbreadth, de minimis triviality, chilling effects, or selective enforcement. Nor (unlike the L.A. Times’s far more nuanced editorial) does it inform readers that the FTC is proposing in some respects to regulate social media more stringently than traditional media outlets such as the Times itself.

New FTC Rules Aim to Kill the Buzz on Blogs

Citizen Media Law Project: “On October 5, the Federal Trade Commission issued new guidelines (large pdf) on advertising involving endorsements and testimonials. The guidelines, which are due to go into effect on December 1, have caused a stir among bloggers, journalists, and new media types because they appear to place significant requirements and restrictions on blogs and social media. Most notably, they suggest that bloggers or other consumers who “endorse” a product or service online may be liable for civil penalties if they make false or unsubstantiated claims about a product or fail to disclose “material connections” between themselves and an advertiser.”

Do the FTC’s New Endorsement/Testimonial Rules Violate 47 USC 230?

Eric Goldman’s article starts, “In reading the FTC’s new rules on endorsements and testimonials in advertisements, I was struck by the FTC’s expansive vision of advertiser liability for third party-caused violations. In particular, the FTC apparently has made the same analytical error that the SEC recently made in the SEC’s proposal to hold securities issuers liable for third party content they link to. In my comments to the SEC, I explained that trying to hold a linker liable for content at the terminus of a link violates 47 USC 230.