FTC Releases Revised Advertising Guides Targeting Deceptive Reviews and Endorsements

On June 29, 2023, the FTC announced that its Endorsement Guides, which provide guidance to businesses to ensure that advertising using reviews or endorsements is truthful and complies with the FTC Act, have been revised.

Taking into account the public comments received, the updated guides made various revisions including:

• delineating a new principle related to procuring, suppressing, boosting, organizing, publishing, upvoting, downvoting, or editing consumer reviews in order to distort what consumers think of a product;
• discussing incentivized reviews, reviews by employees, and fake negative reviews of a competitor;
• defining “clear and conspicuous” and noting that a platform’s built-in disclosure tool might not be a sufficient disclosure;
• clarifying the extent to which fake reviews, virtual influencers, and tags in social media are included in the definition of “endorsements”;
• better addressing the potential liability of advertisers, endorsers, and intermediaries; and
• emphasizing that child-directed advertising is of particular concern.

The FTC also published an updated FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People are Asking, which responds to frequently asked questions – primarily regarding when and how to disclose material connections.