Is Crackberry.com complying with latest FTC rules?
- FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
Just wondering if Crackberry is complying with the new Federal Trade Commission rules regarding the disclosure of "material connections" between product reviewers and the companies that make those products.
The new FTC rules, which are the first new ones in nearly 30 years and became effective in December of 2009, mandate that web site product reviewers disclose how they obtained the product or service, whether they were paid for the review or whether they got the product for free. They are especially directed a bloggers.
Since Crackberry is such a highly visible online presence (with 2 million users I believe?), I would think they'd be working on a way to comply because they would be a big target for fines by the federal government.
However, I haven't seen in the CB.com blogs anything about what "material connections" they have with the product manufacturers. Surely Crackberry is disclosing what it has to disclose under these new guidelines? Perhaps I'm missing them. :O
The new FTC guidelines are here:
FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
Specifically this part:
"The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that �material connections� (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers � connections that consumers would not expect � must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other �word-of-mouth� marketers.
"The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."Last edited by Furballz; 02-20-10 at 04:16 PM.
02-20-10 04:08 PMLike 0 - I'm guessing here, but not sure if they are required to follow this as they are a Canadian owned site and the FTC is in the U.S.
If that is incorrect then I sincerely apologize, I did state that I was guessing in my opening statement.02-20-10 04:16 PMLike 0 -
- Interestingly, it appears that the FTC does go after Canadian companies that don't abide by its rules:
Canadian Companies Charged by the FTC with Marketing Worthless Credit Card Protection and Advance Fee Loan Programs
Court Order Stops Deceptive Canadian Pitch-men, Requires Payment of $345,000 to FTC for Consumer RedressLast edited by Furballz; 02-20-10 at 04:24 PM.
02-20-10 04:22 PMLike 0 - Um, it is a Blackberry centric website. If a consumer comes here and is surprised that they see a bias toward Blackberry devices then they are probably a bit on the slow side.
A Canadian business has no responsibility to abide by regulations that are targeted towards U.S. based organizations. If that were the case then every web based business would have to abide by the individual trade laws of EVERY country it was viewable from.
That would be ridiculous.02-20-10 04:23 PMLike 0 - I think that's a different situation. Those guys were stealing peoples credit card numbers from the US and using them. It's not like Crackberry is stealing peoples credit card numbers or anything.02-20-10 04:23 PMLike 0
- BrantaRetired Network ModAlthough some of the servers may be in other territories I believe CrackBerry.com operates under the laws of Canada. That is certainly where many of the blogs are created and is the legal jurisdiction cited in http://crackberry.com/terms-and-conditions02-20-10 04:24 PMLike 0
- Interestingly, it appears that the FTC does go after Canadian companies that don't abide by its rules:
Canadian Companies Charged by the FTC with Marketing Worthless Credit Card Protection and Advance Fee Loan Programs
Court Order Stops Deceptive Canadian Pitch-men, Requires Payment of $345,000 to FTC for Consumer Redress
Did somebody at CB.com ruin your weekend or something?02-20-10 04:27 PMLike 0 -
Also, I seriously doubt 95% of their audience is US. Try like 60%, you've got the entire rest of the word.
I hate Americans that assume they're the center of the damn universe.02-20-10 04:28 PMLike 0 - They moved it to Site Questions, where it belongs. Your last post is proving my curiousity of whether you were a Troll in disguise.
Well done. Can't wait for this thread to get locked up.02-20-10 04:31 PMLike 0 -
They aren't targeting a specific geographical area. It just so happens that a great deal of their viewership comes from the states. That is a distinction that I think would be pretty obvious.02-20-10 04:32 PMLike 0
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Is Crackberry.com complying with latest FTC rules?
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