The European Commission and national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States, Norway and Iceland earlier this month released the results of a sweep of social media posts from influencers.
The sweep found that 97% of these influencers posted commercial content. Only one in five systematically indicated that their content was advertising.
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 sweep is summarised as
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
