Be a Good Influence(r)
Legal Implications for Influencers
Be A Good Influence(r)
It seems that holiday season starts earlier and earlier every year. Christmas candy in the aisle before the pumpkins are off our porches. Tinsel everywhere before we can even say “pass the turkey”. And as we start to increase our shopping bandwidth, it’s a perfect time for influencers and marketers – before they start selling the latest and greatest – to make sure they’re following all of the FTC rules.
In fact, the FTC just announced two settlements against companies who were decidedly not paying attention to these regulations. One, Devumi, LLC allegedly sold “fake indicators of social media influence,” including fake followers, subscribers, views and likes. The other, Sunday Riley Modern Skincare, LLC (and its namesake CEO Sunday Riley), allegedly had its employees (at the CEO’s direction) post fake reviews of the products on makeup retailer Sephora’s website.
Devumi
Devumi was accused of selling fake followers, subscribers and views through their websites Devumi.com, TwitterBoost.co, Buyview.co and Buyplans.co. These accounts were sold not only to actors and musicians but also to other users of social media platforms. According to the FTC, Devumi also sold fake Twitter followers to motivational speakers, investment professionals and even law firm partners. These fake followers essentially deceived potential clients to make it appear that account owners had more social media influence than they actually did.
The FTC Act clearly states: Thou shalt not deceive. Well, it’s hard to argue that selling fake followers, creating fake indicators of influence, and enabling your customers to deceive their customers, isn’t blatantly deceitful… it does add up doesn’t it. And if Devumi sounds familiar, it’s because it isn’t their first rodeo. Earlier this year, they settled similar charges brought by the Attorneys General of New York and Florida.
Sunday Riley
Sunday Riley Modern Skincare sells cosmetic products at Sephora stores and online. According to the FTC, between 2015 and 2017, Sunday Riley managers (including Mrs. Riley), wrote reviews of their products and posted them on Sephora.com using fake accounts to hide their identity. Mrs. Riley instructed the employees on how to set up personas and use virtual networks to hide their identities, even going so far as to direct specifics of the reviews such as “leave 5 stars” and telling them to dislike negative reviews. The FTC charged Sunday Riley with making false and misleading claims and deceptively failing to disclose who wrote the reviews.
Each of the above companies settled with the FTC by agreeing to put certain measures in place (some quite restrictive) and agreeing not to practice the deceptive practices they were caught doing, among other restrictions.
The FTC has made it clear that they will not tolerate fraudulent social media activities whether perpetrated by brands, marketers or social media users. To that end they have also produced a new brochure with the most current and updated endorsement guidelines, which can be found here: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/1001a-influencer-guide-508_1.pdf