FTC Regulations Reguarding Ringtone Offers

[JeremyL]

I decided to ask my Azoogle rep for some advice on what she considers the best Ringtone offer and ask if I could get a list of artists / song titles that the offer has in their inventory. So here's how the conversation went (my own words).

Me > Do you have a list of artists & song titles for blahblah offer?
Rep> FTC regulation prohibits bidding on artist names & song titles for Ringtone offers.
Me > When did this happen?
Rep > 4 months ago
Me > So what happens if I big on the artists & song names
Rep > You could get in trouble with FTC and have your Azoogle account closed
Me > You really should mention these things on your offers pages

I'm wondering if she is mistaking affiliates getting in trouble for bidding on artists the merchants don't actually carry.

 

[ImagesAndWords]

By searching in Google I'm pretty sure you will see no paid/sponsored ads containing "<artist name> + ringtone". Since FTC only governs the US, this is different than here in Europe. I've seen paid ppc ads here with artist and songnames.

 

[jened]

leave it to the federal government to fuck with small businesses

 

[arz]

By searching in Google I'm pretty sure you will see no paid/sponsored ads containing "<artist name> + ringtone".

Guess again. Here are the PPC results for the US market:
beyonce ringtones - Google Search
beyoncee ringtones - Google Search

(The second one has an extra e in there to exclude the ads with dynamic keywords.)

 

[mkrongel]

I am not that well versed in the laws surrounding ringtones, but i highly doubt that the FTC passed a law just for ringtones in the past month or two. I also highly doubt that actual laws regarding ringtones in specific exist, since they are so new and government doesnt respond that quick

Basically the FTC oversight is on deceptive and misleading marketing practices, so if youre advertising that you have James Brown ringtones the site must have James Brown ringtones. If the site doesnt have James Brown ringtones then you are misleading the consumer and that is what the FTC cares about.

Bidding on the artists names + ringtone is not illegal and is not governed by the FTC, you might get a trademark lawsuit from the artist or whoever owns that artists name.

Deceptive marketing is rampant online. The funniest part of the whole thing is networks who place such a high value on following this law for one product but not for the others in their network.

 

[gdubs12345]

my account manager at azoogle sent me a list for dada mobile on songs and artists they have ringtones for that i could bid on. I think your acct managers confused. He did say i wasnt allowed to use the artists picture in the landing page though

 

[JeremyL]

Yea,

I'm pretty sure she was confused with getting in trouble for bidding on artists who are not actually available from the merchant.

 

[aeiouy]

Yeah that is not true at all.

I don't know of any FTC rulings on ringtones at all. Although I know the actual carriers cracked down on ringtone providers, on the usage of "free", "no charge", "gratis" etc. Could this have possibly come down as pressure from the FTC? Certainly, as it stemmed from consumer complaints of people being mislead.

I have never heard anything about not being able to promote artists. Of course if you are going to do so, I would suggest you actually take the time to make sure you are promoting something that exists. If the carrier you are promoting does not have a ringtone for artist y, well....

 

[Andrew]

my account manager at azoogle sent me a list for dada mobile on songs and artists they have ringtones for that i could bid on. I think your acct managers confused. He did say i wasnt allowed to use the artists picture in the landing page though

same here

 

[smaxor]

Do it until they say stop!