You can get your application for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch at the Apple App Store. The smallest estimate for what Apple makes annually comes out to around $ 400 million. The App store is nevertheless a place where a lot of dishonesty goes down, and Steve Jobs has found no reason to work on that. Astroturf marketing – where makers of applications festoon their own products’ review sections with fake glowing reviews – seems in abundance. Knowing which applications are worth your time is much harder. This means it is even more difficult to pick applications. The Federal Trade Commission has decided, according to the New York Times, to take a stand.
Astroturfing case needs to be settled, says FTC, by Reverb Communications
Any fake apps placed within the store by Tracie Snitker will be removed. She is the California marketing business Reverb Communications key executive. Deceptive advertising is what Reverb is being charged for. This is because from November 2008 to May 2009, Reverb had its employees writing reviews for clients which were positive. In turn, Astroturf reviewers were paid for their reviews. Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games were a part of the 60 game production clients Reverb had. The FTC made it so the business was forbidden from “making similar endorsements of any product or service without disclosing any relevant connections.” This involves Reverb and even Snitker.
Snitker denies Reverb did anything illegal
Snitker said in a public statement following Reverb’s agreement with the FTC that Reverb admitted no legal wrongdoing, but simply wanted to cap its legal fees from the ongoing battle. However, recent FTC rules which were believed to be targeted specifically at bloggers participating in product endorsement payola evidently also apply things like App Store reviews; the FTC simply hadn’t started to enforce the law in full yet.
Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain says the FTC’s move will promote truth in advertising online. “This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser. When a client says ‘Where are my good reviews?’ you can say, ‘We can’t do it because it is illegal.’”
Further reading
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/08/27/technology/27ftc.html?_r=5
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