Nowadays paid disclosure on Youtube, while still a big talking point, is at least better managed and done than it used to be in days gone by (with some exceptions still). Of course, it wasn’t always just the Youtubers at fault and to get to this point shady things and suspicions of such had to happen, and now one of those events seems to be coming back to bite Warner Bros in the backside.

Back in 2014, the company released Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. However they also got into some trouble when leaked e-mails suggested that they had been paying big name Youtubers, those with many subscribers in their subboxes, for positive coverage of the game. At the same time they were holding back the review copies that were for the press.

Now the Federal Trade Commission have published their findings on the whole issue, with Warner Bros having come under fire for their marketing campaign. It was alleged at the time that Warner had reached out to the big-name Youtubers paying them for positive coverage of their games and had even encouraged them to be less than clear about the deal being a paid one, ensuring that the disclosures for sponsored content were placed “below the fold” – which means placing text so that it can’t be read unless someone expanded the video’s description. Some of the Youtubers also only disclosed that they had received early access, but not that Warner was paying them to make the video.

Warner are now accused of not having ensured that the paid influencers would disclose the paid content “clearly and conspicuously”. While they are avoiding a fine this time around, Warner Bros have been warned that in future online marketing of this nature needs a satisfactory effort made to ensure Youtubers are properly disclosing their paid videos as well as encouraging it to happen.

“Consumers have the right to know if reviewers are providing their own opinions or paid sales pitches,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Companies like Warner Brothers need to be straight with consumers in their online ad campaigns.”