Isn’t it tough enough worrying about the everyday risks of running your agency?

From your people-centered issues, to new business protection, contracts, and all-things-compliance, your liabilities are considerable and worthy of regular review.

But did you know that the lifeblood of your agency, your own clients, can end up in hot water and take you along for the ride with them?

It’s possible to share liability and responsibility with your client for any of the following:

1. False Claims
2. Misleading Claims
3. FTC Testimonial Guidelines Breaches: Transparency/Disclosure
4. FTC Native Advertising Guidelines Breaches
5. Intellectual Property Infringement

Understand how to avoid some of the legal minefields lurking within your clients’ practices. 

False and Misleading Claims  

Walk your talk, together, with documented substantiation behind every advertising claim

How to Avoid Issues: Ask your clients a significant amount of questions about claim sources and substantiation, and make sure to document the requests. Become highly sensitive to work involving vulnerable audiences (like children or senior citizens) or highly regulated products and services (like financial services and healthcare). Your failure to ask enough questions can make your agency just as culpable as if you created the false and misleading claims.

FTC Guidelines

Know and follow the regulations around testimonials, influencer marketing, and native ads

How to Avoid Issues: For digital, social media, and content marketing projects, know the FTC’s rules and how to comply with them with adequate transparency and disclosures (including the all-important #hashtags). And make sure to document your advice and requests to your clients for adequate disclosures and regularly review posts and content for transparency issues. Lastly, provide model social media and content marketing policies and toolkits (such as a model blogger agreement, etc.) and keep them handy for client use and reference.

Intellectual Property Infringement 

Share with care when it comes to trademarks, copyrights, and proper attribution

How to Avoid Issues: Know the sources of any third-party content that gets incorporated into your work (if the client provided it, ASK). Firmly decline to use any assets/content for which no written permission is on hand. This applies not just to content found online or from external sources, but also work that comes from freelancers or independent contractors. Use appropriate ownership and attribution information when referencing trademarks of others in comparative ads.

Extra Layers of Protection

Interested in additional ways to protect your agency from client-related legal issues? Here are a few quick pointers:

• Involve (and require) your client’s legal team in the process: Work with your client’s legal counsel, or a third-party legal professional, for reviews of ads, campaigns, trademark/copyright matters and more.
• Agency-Client contracts: Make sure to include indemnification and hold harmless provisions in agency-client contracts on issues like claim verification, claim accuracy, IP infringement and regulatory compliance.
• Take note: Maintain careful work records of communications with your clients on any of these issues.

Your clients: they keep your lights on and can also put you on the hook for a variety of legal missteps. But they also appreciate agency counsel that is sophisticated and knowledgeable enough to help keep them out of trouble.

Your first priority as an agency leader is to protect the firm’s business, so don’t leave these issues to chance, or sidestep them to avoid difficult conversations with your clients.

Know the score, and have the tough conversations early, and often, to keep both of you safe as your work and relationship advances.

Contact me direct to continue the conversation.