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FTC Takes Action Against Social Media Influencers

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Federal Trade Commission, Reviews, Social Media
This morning, the FTC announced that it had reached a settlement in its first-ever complaint against individual social media influencers and that it had sent warning letters to other prominent influencers. In addition, the FTC announced that it had updated previous guidance on influencer campaigns. Settlement The settlement involves Trevor Martin and Thomas Cassell, owners … Continue Reading

Consumer Groups Push for More Regulation of Influencers

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Federal Trade Commission, Reviews, Social Media
In November, we posted that four consumer groups had sent letters to FTC, encouraging the agency to investigate and bring enforcement actions regarding the use of influencers on Instagram. In April, the FTC responded by sending more than 90 letters to companies and influencers, reminding the recipients of their legal obligations. Now, the consumer groups … Continue Reading

Don’t Like Negative Reviews? Read This Before You Delete Them

By Alysa Zeltzer Hutnik on Posted in Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Legislative Developments, Reviews
Late last year, the Consumer Fairness Review Act became law, placing new restrictions on what companies can include in form contracts that impede consumers’ ability to communicate honest reviews of products, services, and companies in any forum. Quietly last month, the Federal Trade Commission released non-binding business guidance on how organizations can comply with the … Continue Reading

New NAD Decision Addresses Product Reviews

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in NAD, Reviews
The NAD recently announced a decision that touches upon various issues related to consumer reviews, including how paid endorsements should be disclosed, a company’s responsibilities regarding the content of endorsements, and the presentation of aggregate reviews. The FitTea website includes a “Results and Reviews” page. At the top of the page are a series of … Continue Reading

Ninth Circuit Holds Yelp Is Not Responsible for Bad Reviews

By Gonzalo E. Mon and Andreas Becker on Posted in Reviews
The Ninth Circuit recently reaffirmed the protection afforded to website providers and users under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In that case, a locksmith sued Yelp over a bad review and one-star rating that had been posted by a consumer. The locksmith accused Yelp of being responsible both for creating the review and … Continue Reading

Groups Urge FTC to Act on Influencer Campaigns

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Reviews, Social Media
This week, four groups – Public Citizen, Commercial Alert, the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, and the Center for Digital Democracy – sent a joint letter to FTC encouraging the agency to “investigate and bring enforcement actions related to the practice of non-disclosed advertising through influencer user profiles on Instagram.” As we reported last month, … Continue Reading

NAD Revisits Crowd-Sourced Substantiation

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in NAD, Reviews
Traditionally, when companies wanted to advertise that consumers preferred their product over another product, the companies would substantiate their claim by running a survey. Consumers would be stopped in a mall, called, or contacted online, and asked their opinions. Now that many consumers freely post their opinions online, though, some companies are wondering whether they … Continue Reading

NAD Worries Consumers Will Jump To Wrong Conclusions Over Trampoline Reviews

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in NAD, Native Advertising, Reviews
A growing number of consumers read reviews before they decide to purchase a product. Because of this – as we’ve posted various times – regulators and competitors are keeping a watchful on eye reviews that seem biased or inauthentic. The latest challenge comes from a world that isn’t known for its advertising challenges: the world … Continue Reading

NY Attorney General Announces 4 Settlements Over False Endorsements

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Reviews, Social Media
Last year, we posted about a settlement between the FTC and Machinima over an influencer campaign. This week, the NY Attorney General announced a settlement with Machinima over the same campaign, along with settlements with three other companies that allegedly solicited false endorsements. In 2013, Machinima paid gaming “influencers” to post videos endorsing Microsoft’s Xbox … Continue Reading

FTC Announces Settlement Over Influencer Campaign for Xbox One

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Federal Trade Commission, Native Advertising, Reviews, Social Media
In January 2014, AdAge interviewed me about news reports that Machinima had hired influencers to create videos promoting Microsoft’s Xbox One gaming console and games. In a native advertising campaign, the influencers posted positive reviews, but didn’t disclose that they had been paid to do so. During the interview, we speculated about whether the FTC … Continue Reading

FTC Closes an Investigation Involving Reviews by Employees

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Federal Trade Commission, Reviews, Social Media
In previous posts, we’ve noted that if a person who writes a review about a product has a connection to the company that makes the product, that connection should be clearly disclosed. The types of connections that trigger this disclosure requirement include things such as payments, free products, and, of course, employment. According to press … Continue Reading

NAD Says Online Reviews Don’t Support “Most Recommended” Claim

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Advertising, NAD, Reviews
Last week, in a case of first impression, the NAD determined that reviews collected from retailer websites were insufficiently representative or reliable to support a broad “America’s Most Recommended” claim. The claim was made by Euro-Pro, who advertised that its Shark vacuum was “America’s Most Recommended Vacuum.” The ads disclosed that the claim was based … Continue Reading

NY Attorney General Takes Action Against Fake Online Reviews

By Gonzalo E. Mon on Posted in Advertising, Reviews, Social Media
This morning, New York Attorney General Schneiderman announced that his office had concluded a year-long undercover investigation into the reputation management industry and the practice of posting fake reviews online. Many search engine optimization (“SEO”) companies offer customers online “reputation management” services. During the investigation, the AG learned that some SEO companies perform these services … Continue Reading
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