Report on FTC Proposed Revisions to Endorsement Guidelines and Discrimination in Housing Sales in Chicago in the Fifties

One of the many nice things about teaching is that your students help you learn about your subject.  One of my students, William Schleifer, brought to my attention this article in the Financial Times about the FTC's proposed revisions to its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials. According to the article, the proposed guidelines,

would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products.

The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products.

If a blogger received a free sample of skin lotion and then incorrectly claimed the product cured eczema, the FTC could sue the company for making false or unsubstantiated statements. The blogger could be sued for making false representations.

So I guess we have to be careful with the blog!  Another student, Alison Hendele, gave me this link to an interview Rutgers history professor Beryl Slatter did with Leonard Lopate's show on WNYC radio on her book, Family Properties, about the role of her father, lawyer Mark Satter in exposing a scheme in which African-Americans were sold overpriced homes in Chicago with high interest rate loans fifty years ago.

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