The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a study indicating that when marketers use the phrase “up to” in claims about their products, many consumers are likely to believe that they will achieve the maximum “up to” results. The study describes how a group of consumers thought replacement home windows purporting to provide “up to 47%” savings in energy costs would provide that much for all or most buyers.

The FTC has also been cracking down on companies that use “up to” claims, officially stating that they want environmental marketing to be truthful and based on scientific evidence. An in fact, in the proposed consent orders, the FTC required each company substantiate savings claims that include the words “up to” by having competent and reliable scientific evidence to substantiate that all or almost all consumers are likely to achieve the maximum savings claimed.

This is importance information for subscription and paid content sites that may be making claims about the benefits of their product. As legal expert Lisa Dubrow explained, “Although this is a settlement and not new law, this is reflective of the FTC’s views on what support is necessary to substantiate a truthful claim and therefore should be taken into consideration when making ‘up to’ claims in advertising.”

Update (7/23/12):Our CFO Cassandra Farrington came across some clever wording that highlights one company’s benefits without running afoul of the new FTC ruling:

Automatic Account Updater Yields an almost immediate revenue lift without any investment of resources. In the first 10 Weeks after turning on the service, one merchant realized $230,000 in revenue that otherwise would have been lost.