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A group of influential personalities like celebrities have agreed to indicate more clearly when they were paid or received gifts to promote their products online.
Singers Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora and reality TV stars Millie Mackintosh and Megan McKenna are among the 16 celebrities who have officially signed with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) show more transparency when publishing on social media.
The celebrities named by the AMC are:
Pop star Rita Ora
Actress Michelle Keegan
The singer Ellie Goulding
Writer and model Alexa Chung
Designer and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
The video blogger Zoe Sugg (who vlog under the name Zoella)
Mario Falcone of The Only Way, is Esbad
Alexandra 'Binky' Felstead from Made In Chelsea
Holly Hagan from Geordie Shore
Model Iskra Lawrence
Camilla "Milly" Macintosh from Made In Chelsea
Megan McKenna reality TV personality
Chloe Sims of The Only Way, is Esbad
Louise Thompson from Made In Chelsea
Fashion video blogger James Chapman (posing as Jim Chapman)
Dina Torkia, fashion blogger
This decision comes in the context of a crackdown by the AMC against influencers who endorse products without disclosing financial rewards.
The CMA has warned that untagged advertisements on social media could be misleading and violate the law on consumer protection.
The 16 CMA-appointed personalities were under investigation because they may have broken the rules on several occasions.
By agreeing to change their habits, they avoided prosecution, which could have led to unlimited fines, or even two years of imprisonment.
Officially, no decision has been made as to whether the stars have broken the rules because they have not been brought to justice this time.
But the CMA says its investigation is not over. He has sent warning letters to more influencers and will also investigate social networks.
CMA Director General Andrea Coscelli said, "People could, rightly, feel misled if what they thought was a recommendation from someone who was not there. they admired turned out to be a marketing ploy.
"As soon as you look at a message, you should be able to indicate if a form of payment or reward is at stake, so that you can decide if something is really worth spending your hard earned money. "
He did not say whether the 16 named influencers had violated consumer law, but said that they all volunteered to change their practices.
Simon Jupp, partner at Taylor Wessing, said: "It's not surprising that a number of influencers have agreed to change the way they publish on social media platforms as a result of A survey conducted by the CMA. It's something that many influencers have been escaping for a while. "
Last week, the ASA said it had warned hundreds of influencers in recent years for breaking the transparency guidelines for sponsored content, reported Sky News.
Last year, the regulator, Louise Thompson, banned Instagram from publishing a publication on Instagram, explaining that she had failed to label it a promotion for a watch brand.
Usually, when celebrities publish an advertisement without stating that they are paid, it is the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that takes action if a complaint is filed. But while the ASA takes action against advertisements or individual campaigns, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can take action against people.
Social media platforms, particularly Instagram, already have built-in tools, such as the Paid Partnership Tool, which clearly indicate that a publication is an infomercial.
The practice of endorsing products, clothing, cars, hotels and vacations is a common practice among so-called social media influencers, who can earn tens of thousands of pounds from companies for a single post on sites such as Instagram.
The risk is that consumers give more confidence to a product recommended by a person they admire on social networks.
Some celebrities use hashtags such as #ad or #sponsored to indicate that they have been paid to post content.
The AMC has released a video describing the guidelines for sponsored posts on social media (see below).
What are the rules?
- Influencers must clearly identify the content paid for or for which they received gifts or loans. #ad or #sponsored are examples, and should now be prominently at the beginning of the message, rather than being buried among other hashtags.
- even gifts that are made without obligation to post about them later must be declared if they appear in social media content. #freebie is suggested as a label
- it's not enough for influencers to declare the companies they work for in their profile. Each publication must be treated in isolation and all paid or commercial content relationships declared
- if an influencer is engaged in various business relationships related to a line item, each must be declared
Influence marketing has been the subject of close scrutiny after a recent report revealed that brands could waste millions of pounds by paying celebrities to promote their products.
The Captiv8 report revealed that more than 11% of commitments on sponsored positions come from fraudulent accounts.
The AMC has also published a quick guide for social media influencers, marketing companies, agents and brands to inform them of their obligations under consumer protection law. This recommendation is in addition to the joint directive published with the "Influencer's Guide to Explain Ads are Announcements" published in September 2018.
More information can be found on the CMA's Social Mention page.
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