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Companies that create fake blogs in order to hawk products violate what most people would consider basic truthfulness.  Starting May 28th, they may also be violating UK law.

 UK Bearing Down On Fake Blogs

An 88-page document gets into the specifics, but it appears anyone or anything misrepresenting itself to consumers could get in trouble thanks to new regulations.  The potential penalties are serious: "a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or both."

That's the sort of stuff that'll make a lot of marketers play it safe.  Judith Lewis, who seems to have been the first person to notice the fresh policy, wrote, "Be aware black hats in the UK - if you get caught the stakes just got criminally high."

Still, what remains to be seen is how frequently the regulations will be enforced.  Big UK-based corporations are probably at risk of prosecution, yet there's simply too much going on for every fake blog to be stopped.  All sorts of businesses may continue acting as their own best customers.

We'll see how this goes.  For the record, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent legislation, either on the books or in the works, that would apply in America.