This is a subscriber-only article. Join Entrepreneur+ today for access

Learn More

Already have an account?

Sign in
Entrepreneur Plus - Short White
For Subscribers

Pay for Praise New FTC guidelines address paid endorsements.

By Gwen Moran

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If blogging is part of your business model, if your business sends free samples to bloggers or if you hire endorsers or spokespeople, then you need to know about Federal Trade Commission guidelines surrounding paid endorsements. The guidelines, which went into effect in December, carry fines of as much as $11,000 per infraction.

"[The guidelines] involve disclosing information about relationships with advertisers or endorsers that would have a material impact about how a prospective consumer would view the message," says David M. Adler of Adler & Franczyk, a Chicago technology and corporate law firm. "It could be a blog entry, a Twitter post, a video, a TV commercial."

Business bloggers need to state in their reviews whether they received the product for free. In addition, Adler says, endorsers and spokespeople compensated with money, products, services or in other ways need to disclose that relationship.