FTC clamps down on App Store's paid for reviews

To some degree, promotion of a certain viewpoint - political or otherwise - via forums, comment sections and user reviews is the foundation of the internet. 

Things become a little more murky when said comments are directly being generated for commercial gain; something that has often been alleged about game reviews on iTunes. 

Indeed, following a settlement with Reverb Communications which posted positive reviews for its clients between November 2008 and May 2009 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US is looking to enforce a set of guidelines introduced at the end of last year that block such tools of the trade.

Proof positive

As part of the rule set, PR firms or, indeed, anyone directly involved with a game's production cannot post positive reviews online without declaring their involvement.

The action against Reverb - which followed a MobileCrunch story entitled "Cheating the App Store: PR firm has interns post positive reviews for clients" - has essentially been used as a test case, the firm agreeing to abide by the code without having to make any admission of guilt.

"Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion," Reverb executive Tracie Snitker said in a statement to the paper.

"It became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation."

Giving credit

Legal experts have moved to calm fears that bloggers will be forced to make public each and every connection they have with a product before publishing their views on it.

Instead, the guidelines are to be used to crack down on 'professional promoters', blocking writers paid to push games through the App Store as well as social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Just how the FTC will distinguish between overly enthusiastic fans and those paid to tap out generic messages of endorsement remains to be seen.

[source: New York Times]