In recent years, growing your social media following has become akin to building yourself a livelihood. With the advent of influencer marketing, brands scramble to advertise their products through accounts that will garner them the most set of eyes. However, amongst the influencers’ own content that their audiences implicitly trust, strategically placed advertisements tend to get lost, often resulting in false impressions about the advertised products.

Now, in order to maintain fairness and protect public interests, regulatory bodies like the Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA) have released certain guidelines that you as an influencer need to follow while marketing products.

Firstly, the right to know is the most basic right that consumers have. Hence, if there is any connection between you, an influencer, and the advertiser of the product, it must be disclosed as it may affect the credibility of the endorsement. ‘Advertisement’ ‘ad’ ‘paid partnership’ ‘collaboration’ any of these words may be used.

Secondly, these disclosures need to be made in a clear and prominent manner that will be hard to miss by the audience. Additionally, the disclosure should not be mixed with the other tags and links. No hiding this fact somewhere in the caption!

Thirdly, Image and Video endorsements should have these disclosures in the same Image and Video format respectively and not just in the captions. The disclosures must be superimposed over the endorsement to make it clearly visible to the audience.

Non-compliance with these regulatory requirements can lead to consequences, including penalties, prohibition from endorsing products and services for a period of 1–3 years and legal actions. So, adhere to these guidelines and keep it transparent, build trust, protect public interests, and contribute to a fair and responsible advertising environment! #blog #linkedin #medium #didyouknow #abriselegal #digitalamarketing #influencermarketing #alert #legal #legalassistance #law #abriselegal #lawyer