Are You liable for False Advertising if..

[tombarr]

If you are promoting a site that misrepresents their tour area through the use of their tour or sales area, and you are promoting that site through links, are you liable for any false advertising claims that might arise from that linking?

If you found out a site that you are promoting is misrepresenting their members area, do you continue to promote them just because it sells, or do you pull your links ?

[dalimili]

Well I know I'd never promote TOPBUCKS, since they claim so much on their tour, but when you actually enter their member pages, it's a total shock of what you get. And in a very, very bad way.

I'd never promote something I personally don't like or don't believe.

[BDBionic]

As far as any risks of "false advertising" claims, I'd venture to guess there'd be none. So that'd not be an issue at all.

What would be an issue is the possiblity of alienating your own surfers and traffic by sending them off to a site they later feel ripped off by. It could cause them to distrust your outbound links and be less likely to join any of the sponsors you feature.

Further, some processors review the members' areas of the sites they process for, along with receive customer service emails from people who sign up for your site. And it's usually part of that processor's terms that a site doesn't mislead in their tour or promise what they don't deliver. So you could be sending traffic to a sponsor who is at risk of losing their processor.

Further still, if that sponsor is that bad you wouldn't be able to expect much in the way of rebilling/recurring revenue. Send traffic to a great sponsor and you could be earning a % off of lifelong members.

So, whereas the "false advertising" stuff wouldn't be an issue liability-wise or anything of that nature, it's not a very efficient use of traffic nonetheless.

[longboardjim]

i guess it depends on just how important is your "good name!" , it's like this party i had and unknowingly to me one of the guests was going around flashing pictures of young boys to my friends who in turn approached me and questioned me about how well i knew this guy! , needless to say my "credibility" was shot that evening and he was quickly escorted off the premises.
i have nothing against false advertising ( it's the reason advertising exists! , if it was good people would already know! ) just be careful what you "attach" your name too because your friends/clients/etc. will associate you to it!
just my thoughts

jim

[tombarr]

Just to be clear, I am not referring to my sites or my links or my promotions..

The question arises as I see some rather diverse, and presumably large revenue companies that have a large following of affiliate webmasters promoting their sites, even though some of their sites are blatant fraud........and the webmasters are linking to the falsely advertised site...so they aren't just choosing the ones on the up and up.

I see this most often in companies that try to capture all niches for traffic purposes, buy a minor amount of content for that niche, then feed that traffic and join to a generic members area. The retention of members ratio on these sites surely has to be low, so why do webmasters still promote them? Some of them are PPS sites, and some are partnership programs...
so it's not about the immediate payout....

Do affiliate webmasters not request to check out the members area of a site they are going to promote to ascertain if the site will potentially retain, and also if the site tour is promoting the content of the actual members area?

Just my musings...

[gaystoryman]

Interesting question. I think part of the problem is that first off, anyone can be a webmaster promoting virtually any sponsor by a simple sign up process. Given that aspect of the industry alone I'd say you have many shoddy sites getting promoted.

Second, I doubt if many sponsors give you free access to the members area to verify anything just because you ask. Now some here I suppose might, maybe its my deoderant or something but I rarely get a positive response on that type of request. In addition, not many will shell out the membership price to check, until they are more financially able.

There is the flip side to that request free access as well. How does any sponsor know whether the person asking is serious or just a wanker looking for a free ride. Given the content costs, be rather hard to justify letting in anyone and then finding they d/l every photograph or the best of your content.

As to what does one do, I suppose if they absolutely know that the tour is misleading, then I'd expect them to look for a new sponsor. But again it is a relevent term. What is misleading to me might not be to my surfers or to others... such as if a site claims highest quality, well in whose opinion? Or if they claim 1000 movies... but have 900? or 800? or any number below 1000, is it that misleading or merely poor math skills?

Still an interesting conundrum for some, for many I'd hazard that as long as the site got them cash they'd promote it till that changed, whether the tour or inside was shit or not.

but heck just my opinion
Ian

[longboardjim]

maybe its my deoderant or something

i'm not quite sure how to say this , i'm not as clever with words as most , i'm just a simple photographer so i'll say it the only way i know how :goof:

jim

p.s ~ just kidding! , you have a good day!

p.s.s ~ "b*n" is actually one of the few companies which i would put my name behind because i find the product true to it's labeling! , and that is such a rare thing on this planet!

[Lee]

Actually thats an interesting question and, i have yet to see anything be done so far as upholding the false advertising laws online.

I for one would love to see something like that be put in place, it would give everyone more rights when it comes to online purchases etc, imho.

Regards,

Lee