Investigation of the Commission and consumer authorities finds that online influencers rarely disclose commercial content

Today, the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States, Norway and Iceland released the results of a screening (“sweep”) of social media posts from influencers. The sweep found that nearly all (97%) of these influencers posted commercial content but 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.