Astroturfing in the EU, Criminal Offense

The Register reports that astroturfing in the EU could mean jail time.

Under laws due to come into force at the beginning of next year, but likely to be delayed until April for the UK, companies posing as consumers on fake blogs, providing fake testimonies on consumer rating websites such as TripAdvisor, or writing fake book reviews on Amazon risk criminal or civil liability.

I like the idea of the blogosphere being a self policing entity but it’s nice to see that authorities aren’t going to tolerate shoddy marketing practices.

(photo courtesy of cicatrix )

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Technorati Tags: astroturfing, false reviews, marketing

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