PR Firm Held Liable for Product Reviews It Posted on iTunes

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) enforced its new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials directly against a PR agency, and its sole owner, for posting positive reviews of its client’s products on iTunes. This is the first time that the FTC has enforced these guidelines.

Reverb Communications, Inc. is a public relations, marketing and sales services agency that represents video game developers. The agency is solely owned by Tracie Snitker. Between November 2008 and May 2009, Reverb and Snitker posted positive reviews about their clients’ games at the iTunes Store using account names that gave readers the impression the reviews were written by disinterested consumers. The posts did not disclose that the authors were connected to the producer of the video games, that they were hired to promote the games or that they often received a percentage of the sales of the games.