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Pay Phony Product Reviewers First, Then Pay FTC Later

by HelpingYouBeAnExpert
9 replies
Check out this article:

Pay Phony Product Reviewers First, Then Pay FTC Later | Law Offices of William I. Rothbard

What do you guys think?
#ftc #pay #phony #product #reviewers
  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    I don't see a problem with what the FTC did. There's pretty clear rules about this and Legacy Learning Systems' affiliates blatantly broke them. I do find it interesting that the company running the affiliate program was forced to pay the fine and not the affiliates themselves...
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    • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
      Originally Posted by fitz10 View Post

      I don't see a problem with what the FTC did. There's pretty clear rules about this and Legacy Learning Systems' affiliates blatantly broke them. I do find it interesting that the company running the affiliate program was forced to pay the fine and not the affiliates themselves...
      Doesn't this mean that if I put my product on clickbank and I have 1000 affiliates and one of the 1000 has a phony review site I'm my job to to make sure I shut them down? Is that what this is ruling is saying it's the job of the product owner or the affiliate? How would I police this?
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    According to this, yes, you could be fined. I just looked it up and found out Legacy was running the affiliate program through Shareasale meaning that the product creator, not the affiliate program was at fault. That does change my opinion a bit as I thought they were the affiliate program as well as the product creator. As far as monitoring it, the best you can do is check on your affiliates and make sure they're well educated about what is and what isn't allowed by law.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    I dub this the, You Lie, You Die rule. More pressure on the IM community. Pretty soon everyone is going to actually have to play it straight. What a concept.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      So I guess all we have to do to shut down our competitors is get a few of our friends to sign up as an affiliate, make a phony video review and syndicate it to a dozen video syndication sites.

      Interesting...

      Sad thing is it's IMPOSSIBLE to know where your affiliates are getting their traffic from and how they are advertising it.

      This is one more law aimed to crack down on one of the few possibilities for the average American to bridge income gaps.
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      • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

        So I guess all we have to do to shut down our competitors is get a few of our friends to sign up as an affiliate, make a phony video review and syndicate it to a dozen video syndication sites.

        Interesting...

        Sad thing is it's IMPOSSIBLE to know where your affiliates are getting their traffic from and how they are advertising it.

        This is one more law aimed to crack down on one of the few possibilities for the average American to bridge income gaps.
        I agree 100%
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    I'm actually more concerned about this article on that same site: Is It What You Say Or Who You Are? A Closer Look at the FTC

    It's just wrong to purposefully target and punish internet marketers more than national advertisers. Especially when the national advertisers are making more egregious claims.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Lotter
    Mike Geary had a similar situation on his hands about a year ago, with his product The Truth About 6 Pack Abs. Some of his affiliates were engaging in "less than honest" tactics, and he sent out an open letter to all affiliates stating that all affiliates had to abide by the law and FTC guidelines, and that if he and his team caught any of their affiliates breaking the FTC rules he would report them.

    Wonder if making your affiliates accept a "terms and conditions" form on your affiliate sign up page will be enough to safe guard product creators from this sort of thing coming back to bite them in the ass?
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    • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
      Originally Posted by Nick Lotter View Post

      ... and he sent out an open letter to all affiliates stating that all affiliates had to abide by the law and FTC guidelines, and that if he and his team caught any of their affiliates breaking the FTC rules he would report them.
      I wonder when Clickbank will enable the possibility for vendors to contact
      their affiliates directly via email without the need to send out an open
      letter on a marketing forum.

      As a vendor, it would also be nice to have the possibility to ban certain
      affiliates via Clickbank's API. This way, Clickbank can keep an eye on this
      as well.
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