::That means you need to say so.
Yup. That's what I was saying. I was agreeing with you. It's law that you have to note if you're receiving a product in order to give a review. The FTC even has a whole page that lays out what you can and cannot do online with regards to reviews and endorsements:
The FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
Here's the relevant section from the FTC link:
I’m a blogger. I heard that every time I mention a product on my blog, I have to say whether I got it for free or paid for it myself. Is that true?
No. If you mention a product you paid for yourself, there isn’t an issue. Nor is it an issue if you get the product for free because a store is giving out free samples to its customers.
The FTC is only concerned about endorsements that are made on behalf of a sponsoring advertiser. For example, an endorsement would be covered by the FTC Act if an advertiser – or someone working for an advertiser – pays you or gives you something of value to mention a product. If you receive free products or other perks with the expectation that you’ll promote or discuss the advertiser’s products in your blog, you’re covered. Bloggers who are part of network marketing programs where they sign up to receive free product samples in exchange for writing about them also are covered.
And here is the actual line from the relevant law:
§255.5 Disclosure of material connections.
When there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience), such connection must be fully disclosed.
Link:
eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations
Giving the book itself would fall under the "free products or other perks" section of the quote above. A lot of indie authors have ARC teams. I even have a checkbox on my newsletter signup pages asking readers if they want to be a part of my ARC team. It's a common practice--and one that is perfectly legal. They're essentially part of a network of people who would receive the book first, before it's even available to the public, in order to solicit reviews. (I don't know about the laws in Canada, the UK and Europe, though. I would imagine their laws are similar.)
But I will admit, the link I posted above had me scratching my head too when I first found it. I'd always been told that a reviewer had to note when they received an ARC copy, and I was even in the process of writing that ARC readers were required to post that they'd received the book for free...until I read that section. I started to wonder if I had it wrong and the laws had somehow been relaxed, and I backtracked and deleted what I was writing. Obviously the laws haven't been diluted, and you're right, that link is posting faulty advice. So yeah, I was agreeing with you.
