Covering Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Online Advertising Industry
What’s at Stake?The world of online marketing is heavily regulated, and constantly watched by both government authorities and consumer advocates. Honest marketers must tiptoe carefully through the minefield of regulations and laws, and make sure that they play by the rules. The consequences of failing to do so can be severe.
What’s at stake? Everything. Make a serious mistake and everything you’ve built can explode in a moment and evaporate before your eyes. When you get the call from the FTC investigator, or a State Attorney General’s office, that’s not the time to begin reviewing your offers for compliance, or setting up a compliance program. It’s too late to map the mine field when you’ve already stepped on the mine. The stories of people who have found themselves out of business overnight are not unusual in our industry.
Mapping the Mine Field
The first thing to understand is that the minefield exists. Many smaller affiliates seem to be unaware of this fact, or intentionally blind themselves to the risk. Most of the larger affiliates or networks understand that the risk to their business is extreme, and that they need a map that will allow them to successfully navigate the field.
Why People Ignore the Mine Field
There are two main issues that can keep people blind to the minefield. Often, new and inexperienced affiliates are simply overwhelmed with learning the business and attempting to generate revenue. Overwhelm can keep even experienced affiliates from regularly updating their map of the legal mine field. The idea that they need to know about, understand and comply with a myriad of laws and regulations can be overwhelming for anyone. Additionally, the idea of spending funds to consult a lawyer to review sites, newsletters and creatives can be daunting.
The second issue that keeps some affiliates blind to the mine field is money. Sometimes the lure of big dollars leads generally honest people to do things that they would not otherwise consider. While there is often a grey area between right and wrong in online advertising, experience has shown that people interpret the "grey" area to be exceptionally wide when they are looking at the potential for large revenue.
What to Do?
Whether you’re a brand new affiliate learning the ropes, or a well established network, it’s imperative that you keep a current map of the legal and regulatory mine field that surrounds the business of online advertising. If you can afford it, consult with a legal professional who is well versed in this area of the law. Make sure they have the experience to give you the proper guidance.
If you can’t afford to hire your own attorney, there’s plenty of compliance help available online. Ask any of the networks with whom you are involved and they can guide you to the resources they use to make sure all of their offers are in compliance with all laws and regulations. And if you want to do some looking on your own, I recommend that you start at the FTC’s own site at www.ftc.gov. Specifically, you should download, read and be thoroughly versed in an FTC document called Dot Com Disclosures, located at this link: http://ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/dotcom/index.html
Come back to this column every week and we’ll start to get specific about some of the rules, regulations, laws and trends that you must understand to successfully negotiate the minefield. Each week we’ll cover important legal issues, talk about how to avoid the pitfalls, and cover the breaking legal and regulatory advertising industry news.
Legal Disclaimer: Information conveyed in this column is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. These materials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Digital Moses, and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct, or up-to-date. The column is provided for "information purposes" only and should not be relied upon as "legal advice." This information is not intended to substitute for obtaining legal advice from an attorney. No person should act or rely on any information in this column without seeking the advice of an attorney.
Mark Meckler is the General Counsel for UniqueLeads.com, Inc., and Unique Lists, Inc.
Copyright 2007 Mark J. Meckler
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