Earnings claims in advertising in Utah must be truthful, substantiated in writing before publication, and accompanied by the specific disclosures the applicable rule demands. Covered business opportunity sellers must deliver an “EARNINGS CLAIM STATEMENT REQUIRED BY LAW” document, franchisors must place the figures in Item 19, and Utah sellers may owe a state disclosure statement with a CAUTION notice.

Last updated: August 2026

What Are Earnings Claims in Advertising and How Do They Work?

An earnings claim is any express or implied representation about money a person has earned, can earn, may earn, or is likely to earn from an opportunity, program, service, franchise, business, or work arrangement. Earnings claims in advertising can involve revenue, profit, commissions, savings, return on investment, bonuses, residual income, or any similar financial result.

The Federal Trade Commission looks past the literal wording. Images and implied messages carry the same legal weight as sentences. A marketer does not escape the rules simply by avoiding the words “income” or “profit.” Advertising luxury cars, expensive vacations, oversized checks, financial freedom, or unusually successful participants can communicate an implied earnings or lifestyle claim depending on context.

At the federal level, the FTC’s advertising and marketing principles require claims to be truthful, non-deceptive, and supported by evidence before they run. Specific categories carry far more detailed obligations. The Business Opportunity Rule at 16 CFR Part 437 requires a particular written earnings document when covered sellers make earnings claims at all.

Utah layers state law on top. Under Utah Code Section 13-11-4, a supplier that engages in a deceptive act or practice in connection with a consumer transaction violates the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act, whether the deception occurs before, during, or after the transaction. The Utah Business Opportunity Disclosure Act then adds specific requirements aimed squarely at representations about potential sales, income, and gross or net profits.

Businesses building a campaign should start from sound Ethical Advertising Guidelines and evaluate the overall message a consumer is likely to receive, not individual sentences read in isolation.

The Short Answer: What Disclosures Are Required for Earnings Claims in Advertising in Utah?

There is no single Utah disclaimer that legalizes an earnings claim. What you must disclose depends entirely on what you are selling and to whom. Four questions decide the answer.

1. Is the offer a business opportunity under the FTC Business Opportunity Rule? If so, you owe a separate written earnings claim statement plus in-ad disclosures for general media claims.
2. Is the offer a franchise? If so, the financial figures belong in Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document, and nowhere else.
3. Does the offer meet the Utah statutory definition of a business opportunity? If so, you may owe a state disclosure statement, a proof of disclosure receipt, and a CAUTION notice.
4. Is it none of the above? Then general truth in advertising law still applies. Your earnings claims in advertising must be substantiated, and any qualification necessary to prevent deception must be clear, conspicuous, and close to the claim.

Classification is the whole ballgame. An ad campaign compliance review before launch is the cheapest way to learn which of those five rows you are standing in.

Seven Disclosure Requirements for Earnings Claims in Advertising in Utah

These seven requirements apply, in some combination, to nearly every campaign that puts a dollar figure in front of a prospective buyer. Work through them in order.

1. The Earnings Claim Must Have a Reasonable Basis Before It Is Published

The first requirement is not a disclaimer at all. It is substantiation.

A business should possess reliable evidence supporting an earnings claim before the advertisement, sales presentation, social post, webinar, email, or testimonial goes out. Publishing first and hunting for proof later is the pattern that produces enforcement actions.

For covered business opportunities, 16 CFR 437.4 expressly requires a reasonable basis for the claim at the time the claim is made, written materials substantiating it, and availability of that substantiation on request.

The evidence has to match the claim as consumers will read it. A statement such as “make $10,000 per month” is not ordinarily supported by the fact that one unusually successful participant once hit that number.

Keep the substantiation file: calculations, underlying datasets, dates, assumptions, the exact creative that ran, and the approval record. A written advertising compliance documentation standard is what lets you prove, two years later, who approved the claim and what evidence existed that day.

2. Covered Business Opportunities Require a Specific Earnings Claim Statement

The Business Opportunity Rule contains the clearest mandatory earnings disclosure in federal advertising law.

When the Rule applies and a seller makes an earnings claim to a prospective purchaser, the seller must furnish a single written earnings claim statement. Under 16 CFR 437.4, that document must carry the heading “EARNINGS CLAIM STATEMENT REQUIRED BY LAW” in capital, bold letters, and must include:

• The name of the person making the claim
• The date of the claim
• The earnings claim itself
• The beginning and ending dates during which the represented earnings were achieved
• The number and percentage of purchasers who achieved at least the represented earnings
• Any characteristics of those purchasers that may differ materially from the prospective purchaser, such as location
• A statement that written substantiation is available on request

Notice what is absent from that list. There is no line for “results not typical.” A generic disclaimer does not replace the required document when the Rule applies, and it does not fix a claim the data cannot support.

3. General Media Earnings Claims Carry Immediate Disclosure Duties

A covered seller may also make earnings claims in advertising through general media: a website, a paid social campaign, radio, television, print, or a landing page.

In that setting, 16 CFR 437.4 still requires a reasonable basis and written substantiation, and it also requires specific information to appear in immediate conjunction with the claim. That includes the beginning and ending dates when the represented earnings were achieved and the number and percentage of purchasers who achieved at least that level.

Placement is not a formality. A distant terms page does not cure a prominent financial promise on the ad itself.

FTC digital advertising guidance stresses that a disclosure needed to prevent deception must be clear and conspicuous and close enough to the claim that consumers actually connect the two. When the format makes an adequate disclosure impractical, changing the claim is safer than burying the qualification. That is the practical core of good advertising transparency practice.

4. Typical Results Matter More Than Exceptional Success Stories

The single most dangerous practice in this area is featuring exceptional performers in a way that suggests their results are normal.

FTC guidance on money-making opportunities is direct: unusually high earnings by a small number of participants do not, by themselves, support a claim that others will probably achieve comparable results. The question is what the evidence shows a typical participant is likely to earn.

Testimonials raise the same problem. A dramatic success story often communicates not “this happened once” but “this is what you can expect.”

Before selecting a testimonial, look at the full distribution: percentages, zero earners, participants who lost money, expenses, and the relevant time period. Sound advertising ethics favor representative information over dramatic but misleading anecdotes.

5. Gross Revenue Should Never Be Presented as Net Profit

An earnings figure can be literally accurate and still create a false overall impression.

Suppose a participant generated $80,000 in annual sales and spent $55,000 on inventory, advertising, software, travel, fees, refunds, and subcontractors. Advertising that this participant “made $80,000” communicates a financial picture that is roughly three times better than reality.

Distinguish gross sales, gross income, commissions, net income, and net profit whenever the difference is material, and identify the assumptions behind the number.

Utah treats this squarely. Utah Code Section 13-15-202(1)(c)(iii)(D) requires a covered applicant’s disclosure statement to include each oral, written, visual, or other representation the applicant makes to a prospective purchaser about specific levels of potential sales, income, or gross and net profits. Teaching marketing and sales teams the difference between revenue and profit through structured advertising compliance training prevents most of these errors before they reach a designer.

6. Utah Business Opportunity Sellers Owe Additional State Disclosures

Federal compliance does not resolve Utah requirements.

Under Utah Code Section 13-15-201, a person generally must obtain a proof of disclosure receipt from the Division of Consumer Protection before acting as a seller in the state, by filing a disclosure statement that complies with Section 13-15-202 and paying the filing fee. That receipt is valid for one year, and renewal must be filed at least 30 days before it expires. Franchisors follow a parallel track and file for a proof of notice receipt instead.

Timing is strict. Utah Code Section 13-15-203 requires the seller to provide the disclosure statement to a prospective purchaser at least 10 business days before the earlier of the day the purchaser signs a binding agreement or the day the purchaser makes a payment.

Because the Utah definition turns on details such as the $500 initial required consideration threshold, classification errors are common. Utah companies should have promotions reviewed under current advertising law before relying on a national template.

7. Franchises Follow the Item 19 Financial Performance Framework

Franchise earnings claims are called financial performance representations and live under a different rule.

Under 16 CFR 436.5(s), a franchisor making a financial performance representation must have a reasonable basis and written substantiation at the time the representation is made, disclose the material bases and assumptions, state the number and percentage of outlets that achieved the stated result, include an admonition that a particular franchisee’s results may differ, and state that written substantiation is available on reasonable request. A franchisor that makes no such representation must say so in the prescribed language.

The practical consequence is that a franchise salesperson cannot supplement Item 19 with attractive projections over the phone. Whatever the numbers are, they belong in the document. The same “check the rule that actually applies” discipline governs neighboring areas such as warranty advertising compliance and broader franchise law questions.

What Recent FTC Enforcement Shows About Earnings Claims in Advertising in Utah and Nationally

The 2026 enforcement record is the clearest available guide to how regulators read earnings claims in advertising.

According to company data cited by the FTC, in each of the last five years at least 77% of Forever Living participants who purchased, sold, or recruited during the year received no compensation, and more than 89% of new participants had not earned back their $300-plus start-up cost even after two full years.

Federal Trade Commission, April 14, 2026

The Forever Living order, announced April 14, 2026, permanently prohibits the company and its operators from making deceptive earnings claims. The FTC’s complaint focused on in-person meetings, social media videos, and print materials that used images of luxury cars and giant checks alongside promises ranging from extra income to replacing a full-time job. It also alleged that the company’s published income disclosure statements implied that everyone pursuing the opportunity was earning something, when nearly 90% had received no income at all.

A month later, on May 13, 2026, the FTC and the State of Nevada announced a settlement with the lead defendants behind IM Mastery Academy, also branded IYOVIA, iMarketsLive, and IM Academy. The proposed order imposes a $795.8 million judgment and requires the defendants to surrender assets valued at nearly $90 million, including eight luxury homes, 19 automobiles, a yacht, and jewelry. The scheme generated more than $1.2 billion since 2018 by using false or baseless earnings claims aimed at young people on social media.

Utah has its own chapter in this history. In 2023 the FTC and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection resolved claims against Zurixx, LLC and its owners over a real estate investment coaching operation built on false earnings claims, producing permanent bans and roughly $12 million for consumer redress in what the Division described as the largest consumer settlement in Utah history. A parallel action against Response Marketing Group and Nudge, LLC produced a $15 million judgment, a ban on selling money-making opportunities, and more than $10 million in refunds distributed to consumers in March 2024.

Four consistent themes run through those matters: lifestyle imagery treated as an earnings claim, income disclosure statements that flattered the data, gross figures presented as take-home pay, and recruiters improvising numbers the company never substantiated.

Utah’s Cover Sheet and CAUTION Notice Requirements

Utah’s disclosure statement is a defined document, not a free-form brochure. Section 13-15-202 lists what must be in it and, notably, provides that the statement may not include material or information beyond what the statute requires.

Two elements matter most for advertisers making earnings claims.

First, the disclosure statement needs a cover sheet at the front that conspicuously states, in at least 12-point upper and lower case boldface type, the applicant’s name, the filing date, and this notice: “INFORMATION FOR PURCHASE OF A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: To protect you, the State of Utah has required your seller to give you this disclosure statement. The State of Utah has not verified the accuracy of the information in the disclosure statement.”

Second, when the applicant makes a representation about specific levels of potential sales, income, or gross and net profits, the cover sheet must also carry a CAUTION notice stating the number of purchasers who have earned through the business opportunity an amount in excess of what they paid for it, and the percentage of total purchasers that number represents.

That second requirement is the state analogue of the federal “number and percentage” rule, and it is unforgiving. If you cannot fill in those two blanks from real data, you cannot make the earnings claim.

What Bad Earnings Claims Cost a Utah Business

The financial exposure from mishandled earnings claims in advertising in Utah runs on two tracks: what the state can do, and what purchasers can do.

Per-violation math is what makes this dangerous. A single non-compliant funnel that reached a few hundred Utah purchasers is not one violation, and the fine schedule scales accordingly. Add the internal cost of pulling creative from websites, ad accounts, email sequences, affiliate portals, sales scripts, webinars, and printed materials, and the cleanup routinely exceeds what a pre-launch review would have cost. Businesses already facing a demand letter or investigation should read our guidance on what to do when a Utah business gets sued.

How to Write a Compliant Earnings Claim Disclosure

Working order matters more than wording. Use this sequence to build earnings claims in advertising in Utah that survive review.

1. Write down the exact claim, including the implied message a reasonable consumer would take from the images, the testimonial, and the headline together.
2. Classify the offer against the five rows in the table above. Determine whether the Business Opportunity Rule, the Franchise Rule, the Utah Business Opportunity Disclosure Act, or general truth in advertising law governs.
3. Pull the underlying participant data for a defined period and calculate the number and percentage who achieved at least the represented result.
4. Subtract expenses. Decide whether you are quoting gross or net, and label it so no reader has to guess.
5. Draft the required document. For a covered business opportunity that means the “EARNINGS CLAIM STATEMENT REQUIRED BY LAW” statement. For a franchise it means Item 19.
6. Draft the in-ad disclosure for general media, carrying the time period and the number and percentage data immediately next to the claim.
7. Test placement on every format the claim will run in, including mobile, video, and short-form social. If the disclosure will not fit legibly next to the claim, cut the claim.
8. Route through legal review, then log the approval, the evidence reviewed, the approver, and the publication date.
9. Push the same standard to affiliates, influencers, distributors, and salespeople in writing, with a monitoring process behind it.
10. Diary a re-verification date. Earnings data ages, and a disclosure built on stale numbers becomes misleading on its own.

Companies running high volumes of digital creative should build this into a repeatable workflow rather than a per-campaign scramble. Our overview of online advertising compliance strategies covers how to operationalize that across paid channels.

Earnings Claim Options, Alternatives, and Strategies

Make a Narrow, Fully Substantiated Claim

Instead of promising broad financial success, state only the result your evidence can reliably support. Narrow claims are easier to document, easier to qualify, and far easier to defend.

Use Representative Data

With an adequate dataset you can present a median, an average, a percentile, or a full distribution, provided the statistic you choose accurately communicates the typical experience. Define the methodology and the population in the disclosure.

Publish an Honest Income Disclosure Statement

An income disclosure statement is only protective if it reflects everyone who participated, including the participants who earned nothing. The Forever Living allegations turned in part on a disclosure that quietly removed non-earners from the denominator.

Avoid an Earnings Claim Entirely

If reliable data does not exist, removing the financial promise is often the strongest strategy. Product features, training quality, support, and operational benefits can carry a campaign without predicting income.

Build a Formal Pre-Publication Review Process

Marketing, sales, compliance, and legal should share one written approval path for financial claims, and the record should identify the exact creative, the evidence reviewed, the required disclosures, the approver, and the publication date.

What to Do If You Already Published a Questionable Earnings Claim

If your Utah business has already run the claim, work in this order.

1. Preserve the exact advertisements, scripts, landing pages, emails, videos, testimonials, and supporting data. Do not quietly delete the creative.
2. Identify every express and implied earnings representation across every channel.
3. Determine whether reliable substantiation existed at the moment each claim was made.
4. Determine which framework applies: the Business Opportunity Rule, the Franchise Rule, Utah’s Business Opportunity Disclosure Act, the Consumer Sales Practices Act, or endorsement guidance.
5. Review the disclosures you did make for accuracy, prominence, proximity, and completeness.
6. Stop or revise any claim the data cannot support.
7. Audit affiliate, influencer, salesperson, and distributor materials, which are frequently the actual source of the problem.
8. Document the corrective steps and the dates.
9. Get legal advice before responding to a Division inquiry or a civil investigative demand.

Common Mistakes People Make With Earnings Claims in Advertising in Utah

Using one winner as proof of typical earnings. Exceptional results do not support what ordinary participants are likely to achieve.

Relying on “results may vary.” A generic disclaimer replaces no mandatory disclosure and cures no unsupported claim.

Confusing revenue with profit. Gross receipts create a misleading impression whenever substantial expenses are left out of the picture.

Hiding disclosures behind a link. Material qualifications belong where consumers will actually encounter them, next to the claim.

Ignoring implied claims. Images, testimonials, luxury lifestyles, and stage presentations communicate earnings claims without a single dollar figure.

Letting affiliates improvise. Distributors, influencers, and salespeople who invent numbers create liability for the company that recruited them.

Filtering the denominator. Excluding non-earners from an income disclosure statement converts a compliance document into a deceptive one.

Failing to update old data. An earnings disclosure built on outdated participant results becomes misleading as circumstances change.

Assuming a federal filing covers Utah. The state receipt, cover sheet, and 10 business day delivery rule are separate obligations.

How an Experienced Attorney Helps With Earnings Claim Compliance

An attorney’s most valuable contribution comes before the money is spent, when the legal framework is still a choice rather than a finding.

A useful review identifies express and implied claims, tests the substantiation, evaluates testimonials against the underlying distribution, separates gross from net, drafts the disclosure language and specifies its placement, checks the Utah business opportunity and franchise filing questions, and sets the policies that govern employees, influencers, affiliates, and independent sellers.

Escalation procedures matter as much as the review itself. Questionable claims need a defined path to legal before publication, not after a complaint. Broader compliance law planning ties advertising review to recordkeeping, training, contracts, and internal controls, and general Utah business law counsel keeps the marketing decisions aligned with the entity’s other obligations.

How to Choose the Right Attorney for Earnings Claims in Utah

Look for someone who can address both the advertisement and the regulatory system around it.

• Experience with advertising, consumer protection, and business law
• Working familiarity with FTC advertising principles and the Business Opportunity and Franchise Rules
• Knowledge of Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act and Business Opportunity Disclosure Act
• Ability to analyze substantiation files and disclosure documents, not just contract language
• Clear communication with marketing and management teams
• Responsiveness before campaigns launch, when changes are still cheap
• Experience building preventive compliance procedures that survive staff turnover
• Willingness to address both the immediate risk and the long-term advertising practice

Broader business strategy counsel helps when the earnings claim question is really a question about how the offer itself is structured.

Key Rules, Laws, and Standards You Should Know

Utah businesses making earnings claims in advertising should track several overlapping authorities. Each one answers a different piece of the question of what disclosures are required for earnings claims in advertising in Utah.

The FTC advertising and marketing framework requires truthful, non-deceptive, evidence-based advertising across every medium.

The FTC Business Opportunity Rule sets the detailed earnings claim requirements for covered business opportunities.

The FTC Franchise Rule governs financial performance representations in covered franchise sales.

The proposed Earnings Claim Rule Regarding Multi-Level Marketing, issued in January 2025, would prohibit misleading or unsubstantiated MLM earnings claims, require substantiation on request in the language of the claim, and impose recordkeeping duties. It remains a proposal, not a final rule.

The FTC’s business guidance concerning multi-level marketing explains how the agency evaluates MLM earnings and lifestyle representations under existing law.

The Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act supplies the state’s general prohibition on deceptive acts and practices, amended most recently in the 2026 General Session.

The Utah Business Opportunity Disclosure Act adds the registration, disclosure statement, cover sheet, CAUTION notice, and 10 business day delivery requirements, and was likewise amended in 2026.

The Utah Division of Consumer Protection administers and enforces both statutes, publishes guidance for Utah businesses and consumers, and partners with the FTC on earnings claim enforcement.

Next Steps

The governing principle is simple: a disclosure is not a substitute for a truthful, adequately substantiated earnings claim. It is the finishing step on a claim that already holds up.

Before advertising financial results in Utah, determine what consumers are likely to understand from the whole message, identify which federal and Utah framework applies, confirm the evidence supports the claim as read, disclose representative results and material qualifications where required, and document the review.

Pay particular attention to business opportunities, franchises, MLM recruitment, coaching programs, testimonials, lifestyle imagery, gross versus net figures, paid social promotions, and affiliate marketing. Those are where the enforcement is.

For guidance on what disclosures are required for earnings claims in advertising in Utah, contact attorney Jeremy Eveland at (801) 613-1472.

Written by Jeremy Eveland, a business attorney practicing in Utah who advises companies on advertising, consumer protection, and business opportunity compliance.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes and federal rules change, and the application of any rule depends on the specific facts of your offer.