FTC Staff Requests Information Regarding

Digital Advertising Business Guidance Publication

In May 2000, the FTC staff issued a business guidance document, “Dot Com Disclosures: 

Information about Online Advertising.” Its primary focus was to counsel marketers on how to 

provide clear and conspicuous disclosures of information that consumers needed in order to 

make informed decisions about goods and services offered on the internet. In March 2013, FTC 

staff announced a revised guidance document, “.com Disclosures – How to Make Effective 

Disclosures in Digital Advertising,” (“.com Disclosures”) that sought to address the dramatic 

changes that had occurred in the online world, including the ubiquity of smartphones and the use 

of social media as a marketing tool.

Specifically, .com Disclosures advises online advertisers that the same consumer 

protection laws that apply to commercial activities in other media apply online, and that any 

disclosures required to prevent an online advertisement from being misleading must be clear and 

conspicuous. It focuses on how required disclosures may be presented clearly and conspicuously 

and provides key considerations for evaluating their effectiveness. .com Disclosures discusses, 

in the context of online advertisements, the traditional factors used to evaluate whether 

disclosures are likely to be clear and conspicuous, including: the placement of the disclosure and 

its proximity to the relevant claim; the prominence of the disclosure; whether items in other parts 

of the advertisement distract from the disclosure; whether the advertisement is so lengthy that the 

disclosure needs to be repeated; whether disclosures in audio messages are presented in an 

adequate volume and cadence, and visual disclosures appear for a sufficient duration; and, 

whether the language of the disclosure is understandable to the intended audience. The 

document’s appendix contains mock advertisements that illustrate these particular factors.

The FTC staff is now considering updating and reissuing its guidance document on 

digital advertising. Although the Commission has gained substantial experience with how online 

advertisers make claims and disclosures, the staff welcomes all comments on the publication and 

the issues it addresses, and has also identified the following questions on which it has a particular 

interest in obtaining the public’s views:

1. What issues raised by current or emerging online technologies, activities, or features, 

such as sponsored and promoted advertising on social media platforms or otherwise, the 

use of advertising content embedded in games, or the use of dark pattern techniques in 

digital advertising, should be addressed in a revised guidance document? Why and how 

should they be addressed?

2. What issues raised by new laws or regulations should be addressed in a revised guidance 

document? Why and how should they be addressed?

3. What research or other information regarding the online marketplace, online advertising 

techniques, consumer online behavior, or consumer mobile behavior should the staff 

consider in revising its online advertising guidance document?

4. What research or other information regarding the effectiveness of disclosures – and, in 

particular, online disclosures – should the staff consider?
5. What specific types of online disclosures, if any, raise unique issues that should be 

addressed in a revised guidance document separately from a discussion of general 

disclosure requirements?

6. What guidance in the .com Disclosures document is outdated or unnecessary?

7. What guidance should be clarified, expanded, strengthened, or limited?

8. How can the guidance on the use of hyperlinks be clarified to provide better guidance on 

the appropriate use of hyperlinks and how hyperlinks should be labeled?

9. Does the guidance adequately address how to make qualifying disclosures when 

consumers must navigate multiple webpages in order to complete a purchase? If not, 

how should the guidance be modified?

10. The guidance says that when designing space-constrained ads, “disclosures may 

sometimes be communicated effectively to consumers if they are made clearly and 

conspicuously on the website to which the ad links.” Should that guidance be modified, 

and if so, how? Should the guidance document clarify when a disclosure on a marketer’s 

website can and cannot be sufficient to prevent a representation in an earlier 

communication that links to the website from being misleading?

11. Does the guidance adequately address advertising on mobile devices? If not, how should 

the guidance be changed?

12. Should the guidance document address issues unique to specific audiences or 

demographics in seeing, hearing, or comprehending disclosures? If so, how should the 

guidance be modified? Should any such guidance address microtargeted advertisements, 

and if so, how should it do so?

13. Should the guidance document address issues that have arisen from multi-party selling 

arrangements in internet commerce such as (1) established online sellers providing a 

platform for other firms to market and sell their products online, (2) website operators 

being compensated for referring consumers to other internet sites that offer products and 

services, and (3) other affiliate marketing arrangements? If so, how should the guidance 

be modified?

14. Should the guidance document address issues that have arisen with respect to advertising 

that appears in virtual reality or the metaverse, and, if so, how should those issues be 

addressed?

15. What additional issues or principles relating to online advertising should be addressed in 

the guidance document?

16. What other changes, if any, should be made to the guidance document?
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to consider your 

comment, we must receive it on or before August 2, 2022. Write “Digital Advertising, 

P114506” on your comment. Your comment – including your name and your state – will be 

placed on the public record, including, to the extent practicable, on the

https://www.regulations.gov website.

Because of the agency’s heightened security screening, postal mail addressed to the 

Commission will be subject to delay. We strongly encourage you to submit your comments 

online through the https://www.regulations.gov website. To ensure the Commission considers 

your online comment, please follow the instructions on the web-based form.

If you file your comment on paper, write “Digital Advertising, P114506” on your 

comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 

Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex B), 

Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 

Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 

5610 (Annex B), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, please submit your paper comment to the 

Commission by courier or overnight service.

Because your comment will be placed on the public record, you are solely responsible for 

making sure that your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential information. In 

particular, your comment should not contain sensitive personal information, such as your or 

anyone else’s Social Security number; date of birth; driver’s license number or other state 

identification number or foreign country equivalent; passport number; financial account number; 

or credit or debit card number. You are also solely responsible for making sure your comment 

does not include any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other individually 

identifiable health information. In addition, your comment should not include any “[t]rade secret 

or any commercial or financial information which . . . is privileged or confidential” – as provided

in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2) –

including in particular competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales statistics, 

inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.

Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is requested must be filed 

in paper form, must be clearly labeled “Confidential,” and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). 

In particular, the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the comment must 

include the factual and legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions of the 

comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c). Your comment will be 

kept confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in accordance with the law and 

the public interest. Once your comment has been posted publicly at www.regulations.gov – as 

legally required by FTC Rule 4.9(b) – we cannot redact or remove your comment, unless you 

submit a confidentiality request that meets the requirements for such treatment under FTC Rule 

4.9(c), and the General Counsel grants that request.

Visit the FTC website to read this document and the news release describing it. The FTC 

Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit the collection of public comments to 

consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and 

responsive public comments it receives on or before [60 days from issuance]. For information 

on the Commission’s privacy policy, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see 

https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.