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The two new laws controlling business-to-consumer and business-to-business promotions law. Are as follows the:

• Consumer protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs).
• Business Protection from Misleading Business Practice (BPRs)

Consumer protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs)

These Regulations implement Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 is a UK law which came into effect in May 2008 which applies across many aspects of online marketing including privacy (spam), distance selling and advertising.

The UK regulations to protect consumers from unfair, misleading or aggressive marketing practices.

All marketers are advised to view this summary guide of implications for marketers and businesses from the OFT which advises businesses on marketing practices

It covers the 31 principles in 5 areas that are banned outright. The 5 categories are:

• Falsely claiming accreditation:
• Pricing and product/service information
• Promotional activities
• Competitions and Prize Draws
• Sales and After-Sales Service

Business Protection from Misleading Business Practice (BPRs)

• View Business Protection from Misleading Business Practice law

Here is a summary of the Business Protection from Misleading Business Practice (BPRs) - the main implications are for comparative advertising.

Implications for marketing via blogs and social networks

Of particular importance to Web 2.0 / digital marketing approaches is the emphasis on advertiser transparency.

The law is media neutral, so it doesn’t explicitly reference the web, blogs, or social networks, but this is what a strict interpretation means.

For example, in their guidance the IAB have noted that this effectively “bans the practice of falsely advertising on social media sites, creating fake blogs and pretending the blogger is a consumer”.

One recent example was a company director using a pseudonym to comment favourably on his own company in a social network. This is now illegal.

The relevant section states that commercial practices which are unfair include “Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”

This suggests that companies who have created fake blogs (flogs) could run into trouble in future:

• The Sony “All I Want for Christmas” flog which claimed to be by a boy who wanted a PS3 for Christmas
• Wal-Mart blog of 2 people camping out in Wal Mart car parks and incidentally praising staff, service and selection…
• McDonalds 4Railways flog about someone obsessing about getting four railway cards in McDonalds monopoly game.

Moderation of posts in social networks and forums

A related issue, not covered under this law is that for a forum, that from a legal standpoint it may be better to not moderate a forum, since if you do, you become responsible for the material that appears.

This Out-Law article explains best practice for moderation of forum and blog posts.

Reference: Dave Chaffey