The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t appear to be in the Christmas spirit. The agency on Tuesday issued an updated enforcement policy to combat a proliferation of “deceptively formatted advertisements” that appear online. The Commission’s target is native advertising, or online content supplied by marketers to appear in news feeds, which often takes on the appearance of journalism.

With its enforcement policy updates, the Commission offers a series of general principles for properly disclosing advertisements to consumers, and lays out what constitutes a “deceptive ad” in violation of the FTC Act.

Disclosure is the order of the day: The policy statement claims marketing content that has been formatted to look like news content must be clearly labeled as advertising. The Commission defines ads as “deceptive” if they mislead consumers about their commercial nature, or are not clear as to their source.

“The FTC’s policy applies time-tested truth-in-advertising principles to modern media,” said Bureau of Consumer Protection director Jessica Rich in a statement. “People browsing the Web, using social media, or watching videos have a right to know if they’re seeing editorial content or an ad.”

Ad disclosures must be made in “simple, unequivocal langue,” according to the enforcement policy, and must also “be made in the same language as the predominant language in which ads are communicated.”

Not all native ads are required to carry these disclosures, however, if they appear “so clearly commercial in nature that they are unlikely to mislead consumers.”

According to Doug Simon, CEO and president of D S Simon Media, the new guidelines provide needed clarity for disclosure that can be beneficial to brands and marketing firms. There may be cases where marketers have created content that's accurate, but the FTC may still have a problem with it if it’s presented in a misleading way.

“Advertisers can still be in violation of the new guidelines even if you place the words ‘sponsored content’ prominently in the native ad, which is surprising. The FTC claims consumers may not understand that the advertiser influenced the content. A safer disclosure would be ‘Content from (advertiser)’ if you want to be in compliance,” Simon told O’Dwyer’s. “While ad agencies and operators of advertising networks may be targeted by the FTC, it’s the advertisers themselves that are at the greatest risk. It’s imperative that they partner with firms that demonstrate an in-depth understanding of these issues as well as FTC spokesperson guidelines to minimize risk.”

Simon also cited a potential loophole that exists for marketers in the Commission’s notion that not all native ads must disclose their commercial nature.

“This is a significant gray area,” Simon said. “Advertisers need to be cautious about using this to cover questionable behavior. The FTC will be looking to make someone an example in 2016.”

The prevalence of online native advertising that resembles news items has exploded in recent years. Some sites, like Mic and Reddit’s Upvoted, are funded almost exclusively by this content. The New York Times’ December 2013 decision to launch a native advertising program of its own was met by consternation from many.

The updated policy — to which the Commission voted 4-0 for its approval — comes as the result of a two-year initiative undertaken by the Commission to gather, monitor and analyze native advertising and how it’s used. The Commission also released a guide to help publishers understand and comply with the policy updates.