The new FTC rulings seem to be finally coming a bit clearer now after much speculation and fear amongst affiliate marketers worldwide.
One of the biggest claims was that marketers could be fined $11,000 for not disclosing their affiliation and therefor financial gain from promoting a product for instance through ‘reviews’ of such products. It seems now this is not the case as put straight by Richard Cleland:
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s $16,000 or $11,000. The root problem here is that reports that there is a monetary penalty for violating these guidelines is untrue. The FTC does not have the authority to impose a fine for a violation to the FTC act,”
He goes on further to say:
“”Where we have brought cases, there are other issues involved, not only failing to disclose a material connection but also making other misrepresentations about a product, a serious product like a health product or something like that. We have brought those cases but not against the consumer endorser, we have brought those cases against the advertiser that was behind it. If people think that the FTC is going to issue them a citation for $11,000 because they failed to disclose that they got a free box of Pampers, that’s not true. That’s not going to happen today, not ever.”
So it seems the onus is on the vendors themselves and not the marketers. Hopefully these new clarifications will help soothe some of the panic that is going on with affiliate marketers right now.
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