Bloggers VS Federal Trade Comission: Disclosure War

It would appear that blogging has made its way to the Federal Trade Commission. If you're not familiar with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it is an independent agency of the United States government that focuses on protecting consumers from unfair business practices.

Announced last night, the Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. Here's an excerpt from The Detroit News, I'll follow it up with my opinions after;

"The FTC said Monday its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final Web guidelines, which had been expected. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews.

The commission stopped short of specifying how bloggers must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous," no matter what form it will take.
Bloggers have long praised or panned products and services online. But what some consumers might not know is that many companies pay reviewers for their write-ups or give them free products such as toys or computers or trips to Disneyland. In contrast, at traditional journalism outlets, products borrowed for reviews generally have to be returned.

Before the FTC gave notice last November it was going to regulate such endorsements, blogs varied in the level of disclosures about these potential conflicts of interest.

The FTC's proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments. To placate such fears, Cleland said the FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations. The exception would be a blogger who runs a "substantial" operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.

Existing FTC rules already banned deceptive and unfair business practices. The final guidelines aim to clarify the law for the vast world of blogging."

MY COMMENTS:
Wow. I'm not really sure where to begin with this. I can't clearly tell how far this would go. Lets say a blogger writes an article about Vindale Research; Vindale is a program that pays cash to anyone who wants to register for free trial programs. They also offer $5 cash for each person you refer to the program. If a blogger was to write about the program, but has not been paid upfront to write the article; would this fall into a violation? Because the blogger IS getting a "bounty" or "comission" for each new user that registers based on their article...

Assuming that affiliate program DON'T apply, I am not againt typical disclosure basges to an extent. There is nothing worse than getting information from a source you *think* you can trust then purchasing a faulty product just because the blogger was paid $30 to write the article. So if the situation is legitimately JUST to protect consumers from "paid reviews" that hold really no real merrit, I think it's a great idea.
In my honest opinion, I don't believe "paid reviews" are really as big now as they were 2 years ago. Ever since Google started taking away page rank and removing "paid review" blogs from their search engine, a vast majority of bloggers ceased or carefully chose what they continued to post.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW:


The FTC has already stated that bloggers do not need to fear. For example, "someone who gets a free bag of dog food as part of a promotion from a pet shop wouldn't violate FTC guidelines if he writes about the product on his blog". So I would suppose that if you have a blog that is based on random freebies, maybe you'll be in the clear.

Who knows how this will all play out, but I will keep you posted.

MY ADVICE:
Until further notice; just keep your articles honest, as always. If you HAVEN'T tried a product, don't say it's great. If you have tried a company and it stinks, don't lie in attempts to cash in on referral income.
As I have said before, if you just remain honest with your readers, you'll make more in the long run. Sure, you can try to mislead visitors and you might even get 50 of them to sign up for a crappy program that earn you $2 a piece. Ok, you've made $100...and also lost those 50 visitors forever. Instead, write about good, legitimate programs and you'll keep those 50 readers for years. They'll learn to trust you and register for just about anything you say is good.