Are there laws against deceptive copywriting?

I was looking over a ClickBank website, and a lot of it seemed deceptive. Are there laws against semi-deceptive wording in copywriting or can it all be OK'd with a simple disclaimer?

 

clickbank accepts websites that other sites deny because of higher fraud, but they do pay and i have friends who use them.

 

If the person is selling an e-book or something, they're generally required to include some kind of disclaimers with it (like an earnings disclaimer if they're giving income stats or something). Other than that, it all depends on where you live and what the deceptive advertising laws (if they exist) cover.

 

That is a very general question for a broad topic. It's actually not literally deceptive copywriting but deceptive advertising. And deceptive or exaggerated claims are a fine line in advertising.

Clients who have been and intend to stay in business for the long haul tend to steer clear of grandiose claims. The fly-by-nights use them with relish. Whether or not they get by with it depends on how pissed off the end user or competitor is.

 

False advertising is against the law. Read this publication from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for more information. I'm not sure if or how violators outside the U.S. would be prosecuted.

 

There is also something known as puffery. You can read about it on Wikipedia (I don't have the membership status yet to post the link, sorry)

 

Interesting. I'd never heard of that until you posted it. The FTC considers puffery to be exaggerations that a reasonable consumer would know are just exaggerations.

For example, Dord car manufacturer (purpose misspelling) may be able to claim that their SUVs are the best in the world without being prosecuted for false advertising because a reasonable consumer would know those SUVs aren't the best in the world. It seems like the line of false advertising and puffery is drawn between "factual" claims that are intended to trick consumers and ambiguous claims using words like "best" and "favorite." I'm sure there's some gray area in there.

Here's another FTC publication that talks about a pasta court case where the pufferer won.

P.S. I'm not an attorney and this is not legal advice.

 

In Australia our Trade Practices Act (s 52) prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct.

People/companies caught out often have to take extensive corrective action as well as cough up very large penalties. The ACCC (body administering it) do actively pursue and prosecute, as I'm sure happens too elsewhere!

PS: Yes, I'm no lawyer and don't give legal advice!