FTC Introduces New "Work At Home" Product Rules

nothing very bad imho

I see less WSOs in the future

• a list of persons who bought the business opportunity within the previous three years.

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They have to publish their entire customer list.

Nigerians will have a field day.

BreakAllTheClocks said:

They have to publish their entire customer list.

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Doesn't that seem like a huge violations of consumer privacy? And what exactly is a "Work At Home Product?" Is scrapebox? I know my work at home business would be much more difficult without scrapebox... Are all the WSOs going to fit into this category? Is this for courses, kits, software, what? Do these people making the laws know anything about this industry whatsoever? By the looks of things, I'm guessing no.

Sellers must disclose five key items of information in a simple, one-page document:

• a list of persons who bought the business opportunity within the previous three years.

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Wow. Work-at-home opportunity companies must provide a list of everyone who bought. I'm certain they'll love telling their competition the names and volume of all their buyers.

In fact, you could probably calculate their profit margin, multiply it by the volume of people on their past buyer list and know exactly how much money their company is making.

LBrown said:

Doesn't that seem like a huge violations of consumer privacy? And what exactly is a "Work At Home Product?" Is scrapebox? I know my work at home business would be much more difficult without scrapebox... Are all the WSOs going to fit into this category? Is this for courses, kits, software, what? Do these people making the laws know anything about this industry whatsoever? By the looks of things, I'm guessing no.

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Scrapebox is not a work at home program and neither are other software's. The FTC is referring to the courses that claim you can make $5000 per week only working 1 hour a day.

Yeah from the looks of it, they are referring to the actual "work from home" programs that people try to push on unsuspecting noobs claiming huge money with little work.

I think if you brand your product a different way, you can get around it. For example, if you have an SEO course, it's not technically a "work from home" course...it's just SEO. So as long as you don't mention anything about working from home in your pitch, what can they really say?

I don't think they are referring to tools, software, services, and so on either.

The part that really bothers me is they are trying to make the sellers give out their customer list. That's a huge invasion of privacy for the customers. They will end up getting tons of emails and possibly phone calls from potential buyers of this program. I'd be pissed if I bought something and they gave my info out to everyone.

That being said, how many people actually follow the dumbass FTC anyway? I still don't have any notice on my sites that if you buy something from me or fill out a CPA offer I will get a commission and they tried implementing that law over a year ago now.

FOR NOW the FTC is only demanding "one page" and a few things. That's typically how big government starts, sounding reasonable, requiring little. The principle they are laying down, however, is that they have jurisdiction over all internet commerce, and get to unilaterally rule as to what their rules mean, is absolute. Today a guppy, tomorrow, they'll be back the size of Godzilla, demanding to know everywhere the site keeps money, tax forms, id cards and documentation, compliance with 6-7 other agency regs, etc. Will you have to be a "licensed work-at-home" provider some day to offer a course? Could be, who knows.

I'd set up some offshore domains/subdomains, hosting and payment processor funnels, just in case.

yes, FTC is claiming jurisdiction over internet sales now
so they can enforce later.