Customer references and case studies without breaking FTC rules

A first customer who agrees to be named is worth a great deal to a young company. A sentence from that customer on a landing page, a short case study or a willingness to take a call from a prospect all make the product feel less like a pitch. They also put you in the territory of U.S. advertising rules, because a customer speaking well of your product in your marketing is, for legal purposes, an endorsement. This article walks through what the Federal Trade Commission’s endorsement rules say, quoting them, and ends with questions to take to a lawyer. It describes the rules and does not tell you what to do about your own materials.

General information, not legal or financial advice, current as of 2026-10-10. This covers one country’s rules, and the rules and the guidance change.

What kind of rules these are

The FTC publishes its Endorsement Guides in Part 255 of Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The agency’s own question-and-answer page on the guides says: “The Guides themselves don’t have the force of law.” It continues that “practices inconsistent with the Guides may result in law enforcement actions alleging Section 5 violations.” Section 5 is the part of the FTC Act that addresses deceptive practices, so the guides are best read as the agency’s account of how it applies that section.

A separate rule, 16 C.F.R. part 465, deals with consumer reviews. Its section 465.2(a) addresses a business that would “write, create, or sell a consumer review” in ways that misrepresent facts about it, and paragraph (a)(1) of that section lists whether the reviewer exists. This article touches that rule only briefly.

All of these were written with consumer advertising in mind. Whether and how they apply to a business-to-business product, where the customer is a company and a named person speaks for it, is a question for counsel.

Four places a customer’s words show up

The first three are the focus of the sections below.

Honest words, fairly presented

Section 255.1 sets out general considerations. Paragraph (a) says: “Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser.” The section also says an endorsement “may not be presented out of context or reworded so as to distort” the endorser’s opinion or experience. If a customer wrote three paragraphs and you quote one clause that reverses its tone, that is the kind of editing the text describes.

The same section states who carries the responsibility: “Advertisers are subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements.” The advertiser here is you. A customer who approved a sentence does not take on your legal exposure by approving it.

Results and what they show

Case studies usually report an outcome. Section 255.2 deals with endorsements by consumers. Its paragraph (b) addresses an advertisement that gives an endorser’s result. Where a customer endorses a central attribute of a product, it can be read as saying their experience is “representative of what consumers will generally achieve”, and the section describes what an advertiser should do when it cannot back that up: “clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected performance in the depicted circumstances”.

For a young company the practical question is a hard one. With a handful of customers, you may not know what is generally expected, and one customer’s result may be unusual in either direction. Questions for counsel are what substantiation would be needed, how a result can be described accurately as one customer’s experience, and what would have to be disclosed. This article does not offer a safe wording.

Connections that a reader would want to know

Section 255.5 deals with connections between an endorser and the seller. It says: “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”, then “such connection must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously”. The section gives examples: “Material connections can include a business, family, or personal relationship.” and they can include “monetary payment” or giving a customer a product on discounted terms.

That matters for young companies, because early customers often have such connections. A founding customer may have received a discount, a pilot on special terms or extra support in return for agreeing to be a reference. A friend may have become a customer. The FTC rule says a connection of this kind might need disclosing. Whether a particular arrangement counts, and how to disclose it, belongs with counsel. A useful habit is to keep a plain record of everything each reference customer was given or offered.

Reviews you did not write

The consumer review rule in part 465 concerns reviews that a business writes, creates or sells. What a business may do to gather real reviews, and what may or may not be offered in exchange, is a subject for counsel and for the rules of each review platform.

What a careful case study contains

The structure below is an editorial suggestion, not an FTC form. It is meant to keep an account honest and keep a record behind it. The example is invented and describes no real customer.

1. Who and when. “A four-person design studio, used the product from March to June.” Name only what the customer agreed to be named for.
2. The situation in their words. A quote they approved, in full.
3. What they did. The steps, including the ones that did not work.
4. What was measured. Only what was recorded, with dates and how it was counted. If nothing was measured, say that and keep the account descriptive.
5. Limits. What this customer’s case does not show, such as how others would fare.
6. Connections. Anything the customer received or was offered.
7. Approval. Who at the customer approved the final text, and when.

Keep the source records, such as emails, notes and dated exports, in a folder that matches the case study. A claim you cannot trace back to a record is one you cannot defend.

Permission is a separate question

Using a customer’s name, logo or words may require agreement under your contract, their employer’s policy or intellectual property law. The FTC sources above do not address that. Ask counsel what written permission should cover, how long it lasts and how a customer can withdraw it, and ask the customer whether their organization has its own rules. The landing page article says to include only what is real. A reference is one of the things that can be real, once it is documented. How outreach to prospects is regulated is covered in the CAN-SPAM article, and the first ten customers sequence explains how early customers are found. The glossary defines the terms pilot and design partner, both of which describe early customer relationships.

Questions to take to counsel

• Do the endorsement rules apply to my materials, given that my customers are businesses?
• What do I need on file before a customer’s words or results appear anywhere?
• How should I describe a result so that it is accurate and not read as typical?
• Which arrangements with a reference customer count as a connection to disclose, and where and how should that disclosure appear?
• What should written permission to use a name, logo or quote say?
• Which other countries’ rules apply to my audience?

What this article cannot tell you

This article cannot tell you whether a particular quote, case study or reference arrangement complies with any rule. It quotes parts of federal regulations and an agency’s question-and-answer page as read on 2026-10-10, and quotations are selections, not the full text. It does not cover state law, other countries, platform review policies or industry-specific rules. The case study structure is an editorial method. It is general information, not legal or financial advice. A qualified lawyer who knows advertising law in the places where you sell can answer the questions above, and it is worth asking before the first customer’s words are published.

In the data

These figures describe U.S. businesses in general, not WE’s results. Each one names its source.

Show the data as a table

Share of U.S. employer jobs, by the age of the firm, 2023

Firm age	Share of jobs and of firms, 2023
Age 0 to 5	10.7% of jobs, 36.2% of firms
Age 6 to 10	7.8% of jobs, 16.4% of firms
Age 11 to 15	6.8% of jobs, 10.9% of firms
Age 16 to 25	12.4% of jobs, 15.9% of firms
Age 26 and older	24.2% of jobs, 15.4% of firms
Founded before 1977 (exact age not measured)	38.1% of jobs, 5.4% of firms

The Census Bureau cannot date firms born before 1977, so they are shown on their own; every one of them was at least 45 years old in 2023.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics, firm age , 1978 to 2023

Retrieved 2026-10-16. Each share is the sum of the published employment (or firm) counts of the age classes in the group, divided by the sum over all classes, which equals the economy-wide total in bds2023.csv.

Sources

1. 16 CFR 255.1, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
2. 16 CFR 255.2, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
3. 16 CFR 255.5, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
4. FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking, U.S. Federal Trade Commission . Accessed October 10, 2026.
5. 16 CFR 465.2, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.

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