ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION RESEARCH, ONLY 1 IN 5 INFLUENCERS DISCLOSE WHEN THEY ARE DISPLAYING ADS

By Asier Martínez Jurio / Aquí Europa

The European Commission and the national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States, Norway and Iceland have revealed the results of a selection of influencers’ social media posts. The sweep found that more than 97% of these influencers were posting commercial content, but without alerting their followers that it was advertising.

The objective of the sweep was to verify whether influencers disclose their advertising activities in accordance with the consumer rules required by the EU. As a research sample, the messages posted on social networks of 576 influencers were checked.

– 97% of posts had commercial content and, of these, only 20% indicated that they were advertising.

– 78% of the verified influencers were engaged in commercial activity, but only 36% were registered as traders at the national level.

– 30% did not credit the company they were promoting, whether it was an email address, company name, mailing address or registration number.

– 38% of them did not use the tags used to indicate that it was commercial content, such as paid association.

– 40% of verified influencers made the disclosure visible throughout the commercial communication. Thirty-four percent of influencer profiles did so immediately via a “read more” button or indicated it below.

– 40% of influencers endorsed their own products, services or brands. 60% of them did not consistently, or at all, disclose advertising;

– 44% of influencers had their own websites, where they could sell directly.

As a result of the sweep, 358 influencers were earmarked for further investigations. The national authorities will now look to ask them to follow the current rules. If necessary, further enforcement action may be taken, in accordance with national procedures.

The Commission will analyze the results of the investigation also in light of the platforms’ legal obligations under the Digital Services Act and will take appropriate coercive measures as necessary.

BACKGROUND

The following EU Member States participated in the sweep: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland and Norway.

The Belgian Directorate General for Economic Inspection, with extensive experience in the field of influencer marketing, played a key role in the preparation of this sweep. 82 influencers had more than 1 million followers, 301 more than 100,000 and 73 between 5,000 and 100,000.

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This text was originally published in Aquí Europa, with whose permission we reproduce it.