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Today the stork dropped off a special surprise for 31 adoption intermediaries: letters from FTC staff warning them to play by the rules. These letters note that adoption intermediaries, or businesses that claim to match adoptive parents with birth parents for private adoptions, may break the law by saying they’re licensed when they aren’t, making promises they can’t keep, or trying to prevent people from posting honest reviews. The letters tell the intermediaries to take a close look at their business practices and make any necessary changes, or be ready to face the consequences.

Are you an adoption intermediary that didn’t receive a letter? Don’t assume you’re in the clear. Take this opportunity to do your own compliance checkup.

Check your ads for deception.  Your ad is deceptive if it’s likely to mislead adoptive or expectant parents acting reasonably. For example, if you call yourself an adoption agency in a paid Google ad, that may lead people to think your business is a licensed, child-placing adoption agency. Even if your website later explains that your business isn’t a licensed agency, the damage may already be done.

Make sure you can back up your claims. It’s advertising law 101: never make a claim without a reasonable basis. For example, don’t promise short adoption placement times or financial assistance if you can’t prove those are typical for families working with you.

Don’t try to block honest reviews. The Consumer Review Fairness Act makes it illegal to require your customers to sign contracts that prohibit or punish them for posting negative reviews. Let people review your business freely.

Be aware of all laws that apply. You must comply with the laws the FTC enforces. But, when it comes to adoption-related services, remember that state laws also apply. A careful compliance check today will help people trust your business and save time and costs tomorrow.

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

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We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

Jill Cox
September 18, 2024

Why am I getting this notice . I have nothing to do with any of this ? Is this something I signed up to get alerts or is this directed at particular individuals

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