FTC TAKES ACTION AGAINST BEST SELLING INFOMERCIAL AUTHOR

The Federal Trade Commission has charged Kevin Trudeau with violating numerous court infractions by allegedly making misleading claims in infomercials marketing his book, The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About.

The problem centers around continuing problems between the FTC and Trudeau and previous agreements based on civil injunctions. The FTC claims Mr. Trudeau violated the injunction by making new infomercials. The ban had a very narrow exception that allowed Tredeau to make infomercials featuring informative publications such as books as long as the commercials did not represent the content of the publications.

The case brings forth many interesting points for info-marketers. First is a reaffirmation that books and certain publications have strong freedom of speech protections. However, infomercials, commercials and other advertising are not so protected and information in the advertising can not misrepresent what is in the book.