Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX)'s Warner Bros. Home
Entertainment property and the Federal Trade Commission reached a
settlement in which it was accused of not adequately disclosing that it paid "influencers" to post positive videos.
Warner Bros was accused of paying "PewDiePie" and other notable online influencers of positively promoting the video game
'Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.' The company gave influencers upwards of thousands of dollars to speak positively of the game in
videos that appear to have been unbiased.
The FTC's Director of consumer protection Jessica Rich said in the press release that consumers have the right to know if
"reviewers are providing their own opinions or paid sales pitches."
The FTC said that sponsored content should be properly disclosed to the public. It added that Warner Bros. told the
"influencers" to place the required disclosures in a description box below the video where it goes unread by the majority of
viewers.
The FTC also commented on some of the "influencers," noting that in some cases they failed to disclose themselves that Warner
Bros. paid them to promote the game.
As part of the settlement with the FTC, Warner Bros. can now longer engage in deceptive marketing practices or it will face
civil penalties or even a contempt charge in a federal court.
Impossible To Identify Paid Reviews
TickerTags monitors various social media mentions and its impact on stock prices. The company's co-founder Chris Camillo shared
his insights on the FTC's case.
Camillo pointed out that TickerTags has the capacity to filter out Retweets and Tweets with a promotional or marketing link and
is set to enact a spam and bot filtering process. However, he stated it would be "impossible to identify reviews that were written
as a result of compensation from a brand."
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.