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Washington, DC - Online reviews and endorsements can be key to consumers’ decision-making. In fact, surveys show that over 70% of American consumers turn to online sources before making a purchase. Advertisers already should know about FTC principles for making sure that online reviews and endorsements are honest and not misleading.

Turns out, consumers around the world are also scrolling through reviews on their smartphones, scouring social media for recommendations, and sorting through buyer feedback on websites. If you advertise internationally, or advise clients who do, you’ll want to review new guidance published today by the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network (ICPEN) (link is external).

ICPEN is a network of consumer protection authorities from nearly 60 countries that engage in cross-border cooperation. It coordinates a cross-border complaint website, econsumer.gov, which allows consumers to file complaints against businesses based in other countries. Under the lead of its current president, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, ICPEN members have shared information and traded their enforcement experiences with online reviews and endorsements.

Based on this work, ICPEN today released three related guidance documents tailored to the categories of participants involved in online reviews and endorsements: (1) review administrators; (2) traders and marketing professionals; and (3) digital influencers (bloggers, vloggers, tweeters, contributors to online publications, etc.). 

Like the FTC’s work in this area, the ICPEN guidance reflects basic truth-in-advertising principles such as:

More specifically, the guidance for review administrators recommends being:

The guidance for traders and marketing professionals sets out the following key principles:

And the guidance for digital influencers advises them to:

The documents (link is external) provide examples and practical advice on implementing these principles, and also contain links to laws, business guidance, and enforcement policy statements for ICPEN member countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. At their core, they reflect basic truth-in-advertising principles in ICPEN member countries. However, the guidelines don’t provide shelter from liability in any ICPEN member country.

The Federal Trade Commission is a member of ICPEN.