The 'Clear and Conspicuous' Standard
The test the FTC uses to judge every disclosure: placement, prominence, clarity, unavoidability, and same-manner delivery. Master this and the rest follows.
“Clear and conspicuous” is the single most important phrase in US affiliate compliance. It is the test the FTC applies to decide whether a disclosure actually did its job. A disclosure that exists but is easy to miss fails the standard and offers no protection. The FTC breaks the standard into a set of practical criteria.
The criteria
- Placement — hard to miss. The disclosure should catch the audience’s attention and sit where they are not likely to miss it, as close as possible to the recommendation.
- Prominence — readable. Use a simple, legible font with a contrasting background so it stands out.
- Clarity — plain language. Wording must be unambiguous and understandable to an ordinary reader.
- Unavoidability. A disclosure the consumer must click to see is inadequate. Hyperlinked disclosures are easily avoidable; many consumers will not click.
- Same manner as the claim. If the endorsement is visual, the disclosure must be at least visual; if it is audible, at least audible. For video, best practice is both.
- Not buried. A disclosure hidden in “terms,” in a single site-wide notice, or below the fold does not satisfy the standard.
- Device-appropriate. The disclosure must work on the device the consumer actually uses — including what appears before a “more” link on mobile.
The unavoidability trap
The most common failure is a disclosure the reader has to work to find. If someone must click, scroll past the fold, expand “more,” or open a separate page to learn you are paid, the FTC considers the disclosure avoidable — and therefore not clear and conspicuous.
Why a single site-wide disclosure fails
Affiliates often place one disclosure on a homepage or an “about” page and consider the matter closed. The FTC rejects this: people arrive at individual articles, reviews, and videos directly, often without ever seeing the homepage. Because each piece of content is consumed in isolation, each piece that contains an affiliate recommendation needs its own visible disclosure.
Applying the standard
In practice, the standard means placing a short, plainly worded disclosure immediately before or beside the affiliate recommendation, in text the reader sees without any interaction, in the same medium as the recommendation itself. Continue to how to write a disclosure and placement and timing.
Authoritative sources
Last reviewed July 2026. This page is general educational information, not legal or tax advice.