FTC Ruling a Blessing for Private Consumers
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has just voted, 4 to 0, to pass regulations that now include bloggers in the regulatory assessment of how advertisers can use endorsements. This new regulation means that bloggers must disclose if they have a special relationship with a manufacturer or service owner, whose product/service they’ve posted a review on.
The FTC ruling can be taken in two ways. On one hand, some may see it as unfortunate that regulations have now been blurred into the world that many online researchers (aka the private consumer) have come to trust as a sound resource. Or they may see it as a ruling that mirrors a ‘big brother’ like mentality, which goes against everything Web. Yet, on the other hand, we’ve seen an increase of either disguised company blogs and or independent bloggers masking their identities or affiliations and publishing posts or lengthy reviews, for eventual payouts. This move by the FTC should restore the art of blogging to its pure state.
For those bloggers who have concerns about how this ruling will affect them, it is not believed that the masses will feel it’s presence. The regulation, in our minds, is set out to keep honest those who, based on bias or promise of payment, post non-authentic endorsements that unfairly skew a buyers opinion.
The FTC web guidelines become effective December 1, 2009 and anyone found in violation could be fined up to $11,000.00, per violation.
