If your business actually compensates endorsers or reviewers with cash, gift certificates, coupons, free products, etc. in exchange for their endorsements or positive reviews, this must be disclosed! The FTC is the watchdog agency over businesses engaged in interstate commerce including online businesses. The revised FTC guidelines state that if a connection exists between Read More…
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What Are FTC Disclosure Requirements For “Average Results”?
FTC Disclosure of “Average Results” Perhaps the single biggest headache for many Internet marketers and advertisers has been figuring out how to comply with the FTC disclosure requirements regarding average results in their customer testimonials. Most Internet businesses use some type of customer review or feedback to promote their products, including direct customer testimonials. The Read More…
FTC Guidelines On Endorsements & Testimonials!
Any business or individual engaged in advertising must have a basic understanding of the FTC guidelines surrounding customer testimonials and product endorsements. New businesses tend to throw up any endorsement they can get without understanding the legal consequences of doing so blindly. The bottom line is that you or your business can be liable under Read More…
What Are Deceptive Trade Practices Under State Laws?
You or your business can be liable for violating state consumer protection laws. All states have laws governing deceptive and fraudulent business practices and most have adopted the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The UDTPA is essentially the state level version of the FTC Act. You should pay attention and be concerned with state laws regarding Read More…
Why “Data Pass” Sales Land Your Business In Hot Water!
Selling someone a front-end product as the initial merchant and then channeling their billing information to another merchant to be used in conjunction with an up-sale or cross-sale of some other product or service (“back-end sales”) is illegal. Under the Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act (ROSCA), any initial merchant that directly obtains customer billing information cannot Read More…
Negative Option Practices That Will Sink Your Business!
If you missed my last post, I continued discussing online sales practices liability, focusing on refund and shipping liability. When it comes to your online billing practices, you need also need to avoid deceptive practices. Liability can be triggered for deception under both FTC and state consumer protection statutes. Some states have specific statues dealing Read More…
Are Your Online Refund & Shipping Practices Illegal?
In my previous posts, I discussed online deceptive sales and pricing practices. This post continues my series on e-commerce deceptive practices by focusing on refund and shipping practices liability. There is no federal or state law that absolutely requires you to accept returns, make exchanges or provide refunds without legal justification. Outside of general principles Read More…
6 Online Deceptive Pricing & Sales Practices To Avoid!
Sales and pricing practices that are likely to mislead consumers are deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act. They are also a violation of state deceptive practices statues and other state laws, including the Uniform Commercial Code. For instance, in bait and switch cases, a violation occurs when the offer to sell the product Read More…
The Legal Pitfalls Of Making Guarantees & Warranties
You should pay special attention to any guarantees or any product warranties your business makes. Many businesses like to offer some type of “satisfaction” or “money-back” guarantee or free trial. Similarly, you may or may not want to include specific, express warranties regarding anything you sell. Generally speaking, the law does not require you to Read More…
14 Critical Rules To Using Website Disclosures Effectively!
As you learned in the previous post, the FTC wants website disclosures to be clear and conspicuous. The FTC also wants disclosures to be read at the same time as the claims they qualify. There are other guidelines that website operators must follow when using disclosures to qualify some claim made on the website. Any disclosures that Read More…