Federal Trade Commission Announces Updated Advertising Guides to Combat Deceptive Reviews and Endorsements
June 29, 2023
Revised FTC Endorsement Guides strengthen and clarify guidance for advertisers, address emerging market trends
The Federal Trade Commission today announced it has finalized an updated version of its Endorsement Guides, which provide agency guidance to businesses and others to ensure that advertising using reviews or endorsements is truthful.
The Endorsement Guides advise businesses on what practices may be unfair or deceptive in violation of the FTC Act, and they were last revised in 2009. In May 2022, the FTC announced it was seeking public comments on proposed updates to the Guides to reflect the ways advertisers now reach consumers to promote products and services, including through social media and reviews.
The final revised guides announced today take the public comments received into consideration and make a number of revisions including: 1) articulating a new principle regarding procuring, suppressing, boosting, organizing, publishing, upvoting, downvoting, or editing consumer reviews so as to distort what consumers think of a product; 2) addressing incentivized reviews, reviews by employees, and fake negative reviews of a competitor; 3) adding a definition of “clear and conspicuous” and saying that a platform’s built-in disclosure tool might not be an adequate disclosure; 4) changing the definition of “endorsements” to clarify the extent to which it includes fake reviews, virtual influencers, and tags in social media; 5) better explaining the potential liability of advertisers, endorsers, and intermediaries; and 6) highlighting that child-directed advertising is of special concern.
