Labelling of advertising: 4 out of 5 influencers fail

A random sample of influencers' social media profiles carried out by the EU Commission and national consumer protection authorities has revealed that only one in five systematically labelled posts as advertising. The investigation, also known as a "sweep", also revealed that almost all influencers (97 per cent) publish commercial content. In total, the posts of 576 influencers on major social media platforms were scrutinised. The aim of the investigation was to find out the extent to which EU consumer law, which provides for corresponding labelling, is complied with.

The review revealed that 78 per cent of influencers carry out a commercial activity, but only 36 per cent are registered as traders at national level. In addition, 30 per cent of influencers did not disclose any information about the company in their posts, while 38 per cent used alternative formulations such as collaboration or partnership instead of the intended platform labels for the disclosure of commercial content. Online influencers were also negligent when it came to labelling advertising as such when selling their own products.

Info page set up for influencers

Influencers from 22 member states, including Germany, were analysed. 82 influencers had over 1 million followers, 301 over 100,000 and 73 between 5,000 and 100,000. 572 posted on Instagram, 334 on TikTok, 224 on YouTube, 202 on Facebook, 82 on X (formerly Twitter), 52 on Snapchat and 28 on Twitch. The higher number is due to the fact that many publish on multiple platforms.

Influencers who would like to find out more about the necessary labelling can find further information on the EU Commission's information page.

Source: www.heise.de