As a Web lawyer, one of the saddest Internet urban legends I hear is that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission only goes after people who live in the United States. That is false.
Here’s an example.
The FTC got a court order for $15 million against a New Zealand citizen (Kiwi) living in Australia.
Oh yeah…his U.S. business partner will forfeit $800,000 in assets and faces time in jail too.
Although this case involved spammers, the point I’m making is that the Federal Trade Commission can and will go beyond U.S. borders to enforce U.S. laws in order to protect U.S. consumers.
This means that Internet marketers should be concerned no matter where they’re based about complying with the new FTC advertising guidelines that went into effect December 1, 2009 (assuming they have U.S. clients). If you have any questions about this, get answers in a phone consultation.
