The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.
[...] Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews.
— From Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for Reviews at the New York Times (update: link no longer working, but you can read the same article here). Many thanks to Sondra for the link!
Anyone who is a habitual reader of the various perfume forums and blogs already knows that a little scandal erupted over the past few days. To make a terribly long story short, the idea has been floated that one or more perfume bloggers possibly a) accepted payment for writing favorable reviews and/or b) reviewed perfumes favorably because they had been gifted with free bottles from fragrance companies.