FTC Dispute ‘Was a Frivolous Matter’ Says Reverb’s Snitker

The New York Times covers the Federal Trade Commission settlement announced yesterday with PR and marketing firm Reverb Communications over favorable iTunes reviews that appeared to be posted by regular consumers but were actually written by paid employees.

In the story, a statement from Reverb exec Tracie Snitker is quoted:

Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion.”

The case was the first handled under a set of guidelines introduced last year for Internet endorsements, the story reads. A Harvard Law School professor, Jonathan Zittrain, says the case shows that the guidelines are meant to address the “professional endorser” rather than an “individual blogger or Twitterer.”

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