No doubt many of you are aware that effective December 1, online bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with their advertisers, including receipt of monies or free products.  Likewise, celebrities who “stump” for brands must now disclose any financial ties they have to the product being promoted.  It’s about time.

Regardless of the fact that enforcement of these laws will be near to impossible, except in the case of highly visible companies or extremely popular product review sites, this type of legislation will over time bring new credibility to this Wild West we call the Internet.

Most importantly, this type of legislation evens the playing field between social media and other forms of media, beginning to dispel long-held suspicions of preferential treatment.  It also affirms what we have all known for a long time; that there is a whole lot of mis-representation and (let’s just say it) fraud taking place online.

It will of course take some time for these new laws to settle in and take hold, but once a few gross violations are brought to light, it may at least encourage cyber-criminals to think twice before they attempt to mislead consumers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.