FTC Hints It’s Feeling the Buzz

Last September, the National Advertising Division (“NAD”) published a decision assessing whether the editorial content surrounding an affiliate link constituted “national advertising” requiring substantiation. At issue were two statements in a BuzzFeed “shopping guide,” in which the author tested and recommended various skincare products. The NAD reviewed BuzzFeed’s internal procedures with respect to the editorial content and the affiliate link and determined it did not constitute “national advertising” and was therefore outside the NAD’s jurisdiction. But how would the FTC treat editorial content surrounding an affiliate link? The NAD acknowledged that the “FTC . . . does not directly address whether the act of placing an affiliate link next to content about the related product renders the content ‘advertising’ that requires substantiation.” The FTC recently ended its silence. In her remarks…

Read more detail on Recent Advertising Law posts –

This entry was posted in Advertising Law and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply