Tuesday, October 6, 2009

FTC Targets Blogger Freebies

latimes.com/business/la-fi-bloggers6-2009oct06,0,4733519.story

The link above announces the FTC's long awaited rules concerning its crackdown on misleading endorsements by bloggers. "The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement...." "Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service." Will this have any effect on Our Lady of the Perpetual Reviews, speed poster Harriet Klausner, and other of the notorious shills who infest - with the company's astonishing connivance - Amazon.com? Or is Amazon, as one insightful wit described it, now and forever "above the law?"
Ed. note: a couple more related articles: (1) in the Financial Times and (2) from Yahoo Finance.