Federal Trade Commission clamps down on bloggers

The FTC is getting tough on dishonest bloggers

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced plans to regulate bloggers.

In an attempt to ensure honesty in the trade, the FTC wants to require writers on the web to disclose any freebies or payments they receive from companies for reviewing their products.

The new regulations would mean that if a blogger praises a product and fails to mention that they were allowed to keep it, for example, they could be fined $11,000 (£6,900) per offence.

Bloggers or advertisers could also face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews.

The FTC wants to end the practice of manufacturers paying reviewers for write-ups or giving them free products or trips.

This method of bribing the writer will not be covered by the rules. A writer who gets a free bit of software as part of a promotion would not violate FTC guidelines if they wrote about the product on a blog.

However, if they were given the same software to review and were paid or rewarded with something else, they could face a fine.