Product Giveaways and No-Follow

[SparkplugDigital]

If a blogger is given a product from a company for a giveaway contest on their blog, does Google require the link to the company have a no-follow.

This seems like a gray area but I can't find any guidelines put out by Google about this.

[kennyrowe]

I work with a lot of bloggers with giveaways as the company supplying them the products. The only guidelines I'm aware of are those by the FCC (if you're America). The FCC requires that you mention your contest was sponsored.

[johnshearer]

Google has no requirement for a no-follow..however the savy contributor would certainly want a do-follow.

[NigelJ]

I too work with a lot of bloggers who are given products to review for the purpose of link building and content.

The UK has similar legislation which states the competition (or review)  was sponsored and the relation between the blogger and the company is clear.

In terms of a 'no-follow' i haven't come across anything which states that the link must be 'no-follow'. I don't think these communities (such as the FCC) have come to understand the relevance of no vs do follow links, so I'd keep going with the follow links.