Native Advertising >> Regulators Continue To Focus On Native Advertising Practices

April 19, 2016

Native advertising is still on the rise, with marketers continuing to shift media buys into the sponsored content arena as a means of addressing issues such as ad fraud, viewability, and ad blocking – which are primarily issues for traditional display advertising. By way of context, native advertising spending rose from $4.7 billion in 2013 to $7.9 billion in 2014 and is projected to rocket beyond $20 billion by 2018, according to data reported by Business Insider.

The FTC has expressly taken the position that long-standing consumer protection principles apply to native advertising, and that native advertising disclosures are required and subject to enforcement under Section 5 of the FTC Act. In December 2015, the FTC issued an Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptive Formatted Advertisements, supplemented by a Native Advertising Guide for Businesses (Native Advertising Guidelines), advising that, if consumers may be misled about the nature or