Four out of five influencers on social media in the European Union (EU) do not disclose that the commercial content they post is essentially advertising, a new study has found.
- Fashion was identified as the top sector for concern.
- It found that nearly all (97%) of these influencers posted commercial content but only one in five systematically indicated that their content was advertising.
- The findings are from a screening (“sweep”) conducted by the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States, Norway and Iceland. The objective of the sweep was to verify whether influencers disclose their advertising activities as required under EU consumer law. Posts of 576 influencers published on major social media platforms were checked.
THE HIGHLIGHTS: Among other things, the sweep found that:
- 97% published posts with commercial content, but only 20% systematically disclosed this as advertising;
- 78% of the verified influencers were exercising a commercial activity; however only 36% were registered as traders at national level;
- 30% did not provide any company details on their posts, such as e-mail address, company name, postal address or registration number;
- 38% of them did not use the platform labels that serve to disclose commercial content, such as the “paid partnership” toggle on Instagram, on the contrary, these influencers opted for different wording, such as “collaboration” (16%), “partnership” (15%) or generic thanks to the partner brand (11%,);
- 40% of the checked influencers made the disclosure visible during the entire commercial communication. 34% of influencers' profiles made the disclosure immediately visible without needing additional steps, such as by clicking on “read more” or by scrolling down;
- 40% of influencers endorsed their own products, services, or brands. 60% of those did not consistently, or at all, disclose advertising;
- 44% influencers had their own websites, from which a majority was able to sell directly.
THE INFLUENCERS: The Belgian Directorate General for Economic Inspection, having solid expertise in the field of influence marketing, took a very active role in the preparation of this sweep.
- The sweep found that 82 influencers had over 1 million followers, 301 over 100,000 and 73 between 5,000 and 100,000.
- Several influencers were active on different social media platforms: 572 had posts on Instagram, 334 on TikTok, 224 on YouTube, 202 on Facebook, 82 on X (formerly Twitter), 52 on Snapchat, and 28 on Twitch.
- The main sectors of activity concerned are—in decreasing order—fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food, travel and fitness/sport.
- In all, 119 influencers were considered to be promoting unhealthy or hazardous activities, such as junk food, alcoholic beverages, medical or aesthetic treatments, gambling, or financial services such as crypto trading.
- In 2023, the European Commission launched the Influencer Legal Hub, where influencers can find practical information on compliance with EU law.
NEXT STEPS: As many as 358 of these influencers were earmarked for further investigation. National authorities will now contact them to request that they follow the rules in place. Further enforcement action may be taken if necessary, in accordance with national procedures.
- The Commission will analyse the results of the sweep also in light of the legal obligations of the platforms under the DSA and will take the necessary enforcement action as appropriate.
- The results of the sweep will also feed into the Digital fairness fitness check on EU consumer law, launched in Spring 2022 by the European Commission.
- The purpose of this fitness check is to assess the problems that consumers face in the digital markets and to determine whether applicable EU law is sufficient to ensure a high level of consumer.
