An interesting article appeared at FastCompany.com today talking about the new FTC regulations we blogged about the other day and its planned enforcement of those rules on Blogs and other online marketers.
FastCompany posed a bunch of questions to Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC.
While certainly Mr. Cleland statements are not binding on the FTC, it does give some insight on how the FTC is going to enforce the new rules on bloggers.
Regarding the $11K per incident fine provided for in the FTC rules, Mr. Cleland says the FTC is not planning on levying the fine, at least the 1st time, a blog which violates the rules:
“That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law””
“””There’s no monetary penalty, in terms of the first violation, even in the worst case.””
Regarding how are they going to enforce these rules on the millions and millions of blogs that publish each day.
To this Mr. Cleland has a simple answer, the FTC is going to wait for competitors to turn bloggers in:
“Competitors are very quick to turn people in. I’ve never suffered from a shortage of competitive complaints.”
We suggested this when we wrote on the subject the other day.
The FTC is going to react to complaints, not staff offices of people reading blogs for searching for violations.
After all what is more American than Relying on competitors to turn peers in?
If your a blogger or online marketer you should check out the full interview.
Phew…now I do not need to expose my lovers when I write about condoms and lubricants.
The next time a blogger writes that the US is a great place (to live / work / visit) because they have freedom of speech I am reporting them to the FTC!