Major enforcement agencies, notably in the United States (U.S. FTC) and Canada (Competition Bureau have been increasingly focusing on misleading online testimonials and disclaimers. In this respect, earlier this week Canada’s Competition Bureau launched a new advertising law publication with the first issue focusing on digital marketing issues (see: here).
These issues have also been a focus of the U.S. FTC, which has recently updated its rules on online endorsements and testimonials. Brian Heidelberger of Winston & Strawn in Chicago has posted a very good “mini law lesson” video of the U.S. FTC’s new position (with many of the tips also good practices for Canadian brands and agencies.
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FTC Updates Its FAQs on Endorsements
and Testimonials in Social Media
Brian Heidelberger
(Chair, Advertising, Marketing and Privacy – Winston & Strawn LLP)
The FTC has elaborated on its rules on endorsements, making plain that it’s not enough to just link to disclosures about paid endorsements online, to make your disclosures far from the paid action or to otherwise leave things at all unclear. Watch attorney Brian Heidelberger’s brisk walk through the rules: FTC Updates Its FAQs on Endorsements.
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I am a Toronto competition/antitrust lawyer and advertising/marketing lawyer who helps clients in Toronto, Canada and the US practically navigate Canada’s advertising and marketing laws and offers Canadian advertising/marketing law services in relation to print, online, new media, social media and e-mail marketing.
My Canadian advertising/marketing law services include advice in relation to: anti-spam legislation (CASL); Competition Bureau complaints; the general misleading advertising provisions of the federal Competition Act; Internet, new media and social media advertising and marketing; promotional contests (sweepstakes); and sales and promotions. I also provide advice relating to specific types of advertising issues, including performance claims, testimonials, disclaimers, drip pricing, astroturfing and native advertising.
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