Federal Trade Commission
Room H-159
Sixth St. & Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580

Bell Atlantic Corporation ("Bell Atlantic") is a telecommunications company with facilities and operations throughout the United States. Through its operating telephone company subsidiaries, Bell Atlantic provisions more than 41 million telephone access lines and has more than 6.7 million wireless communications customers who have internet access through their wireless service. In addition, through Bell Atlantic’s Internet Solutions, the Company offers Bell Atlantic.net, a dial-up Internet access service now available in selected cities in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Rhode Island as well as in the District of Columbia. Through another subsidiary, Bell Atlantic also publishes an on-line directory, Big Yellow(sm) which carries thousands of separate ads for third parties with links to other sites.

Bell Atlantic appreciated the FTC’s invitation to participate in the May 14, 1999 workshop and supports FTC’s effort to apply its advertising disclosure rules appropriately to electronic media and commerce. Bell Atlantic believes that the Workshop contributed in significant ways to a greater understanding by the government, consumer activist groups and the business community of FTC rules and guidelines and how they might apply to the new media.

We believe the most encouraging aspect of the Workshop was the extent to which the participants found agreement on almost all topics. In fact, we at Bell Atlantic believe that recent research underscores the anecdotal evidence which we have noted showing a higher level of income, education, and sophistication among internet consumers than that of the average member of the general public. We believe that the level of general agreement at the workshop supported this assumption in that few consumers have been the victims of deceptive advertising. In fact, it is notable how little outcry there has been among consumers and consumer activists relating to lack of disclosures concerning sales made on the Internet.

A New Standard for Making Disclosures

We appreciate this opportunity to highlight those areas where there was a significant agreement among all of the participants with respect to the methodology of disclosures made on the Internet.

1. Disclosures made through hyperlinks are effective. There was significant agreement that disclosures made by hyperlink to another page at a website are effective, provided they are correctly labeled. There appeared to be little discussion of any requirement that all disclosures should be placed on the same page as the claim which they modified. Indeed, a correctly labeled hyperlink was identified by many at the Workshop as a more effective disclosure than the same disclosure placed at the bottom of the screen in a smaller type size. The consensus supported Bell Atlantic’s belief that a hyperlink can be, and is, a far more effective disclosure device than other means available in other media, such as supers in a television commercial. A properly labeled hyperlink will announce its content to the website reader and will do so in an clear and conspicuous way. Consumers who are interested in the hyperlink content will explore further, and those who are not can move on but can always return at a later time. Hyperlinks enable essential messages to get to consumers without generating confusion through masses of unrelated disclosures and information.

2. Disclosures need not be made in a banner ad. A banner ad, by general agreement, is a new type of message, which is unique to the Internet. Although many participants likened banner ads to messages in other media, no analogy was completely accurate. However, all were agreed that a banner ad is simply a headline and a teaser; by definition it invites the consumer to learn more. Neither consumer advocates nor businesses would expect that terms and conditions or important information would be conveyed in a banner ad. A banner ad would be far less effective than a hyperlink for providing necessary disclosure, because internet users have become accustomed to expect banner ads to be advertising and promotion and a connection on to another website, rather than a link to hard information.

3. Unavoidability should not be required for mandated disclosures. General consensus could also be found in the participants’ agreement that the Internet is an efficient communication medium which should be used efficiently. Technology exists to force internet users to view certain screens before they can proceed further into a website. Screens that are required to be viewed are regarded as "unavoidable." The FTC has posed the question as to whether certain disclosures should be "unavoidable" by website visitors. The question was put to the workshops as to whether, in electronic media, mandated disclosures should be shown on unavoidable screens. There was, surprisingly, general agreement that unavoidable screens bearing mandated disclosures should not be required. Unavoidable screens have thus far been used primarily when users and visitors to a website are asked to register or otherwise provide information to the host of the site. As a result, when a page is unavoidable, the mere fact that it is mandated reading appears to cause users to pay less attention - indeed, they appear to regard it as a nuisance since they often delay the user’s access to desired information. The very fact that a screen cannot be avoided could result in the user completely disregarding the very information deemed most critical. The "unavoidability" approach was properly and soundly rejected by the participants at the workshop.

Conclusion

Bell Atlantic believes that the electronic media and electronic commerce are advantageous to both consumers and to businesses, enabling greater quantities of information to be provided in a more palatable way than was possible by conventional media. We believe that the Commission has made great advances in understanding the new media, both in its promise and its dangers. At this time, the most pressing problems which are raised by webcommerce are those which have always posed significant consumer protection issues: pyramid schemes and other outright frauds.

We find it significant that both consumer groups and businesses demonstrated high levels of agreement with respect to the methodology of making disclosures on the Internet. We urge the Commission to heed the message that this consensus sends and permit the unhindered growth of electronic commerce in its current fashion. We believe the Commission should focus on those areas where complaints reveal significant consumer problems with respect to electronic commerce. Those problems appear to be inherent in online auctions and in frauds when schemes have adapted to the online environment. It is in those areas that the FTC should continue to focus its resources. The Commission has demonstrated that it can be quite effective in detecting and exposing such harmful activities and we believe the Workshop demonstrated to the Commission that in this new media, advertising can be a true vehicle for education of the consumer about the products and services being sold.

Respectfully submitted,