The Consumer Ombudsman takes action against several influencers

The Consumer Ombudsman has decided to report a number of influencers to the police for a total of nine violations of the Marketing Practices Act and to issue warnings to several other influencers for a total of 31 violations. The Consumer Ombudsman's assessments in these matters have significant implications for all influencers, especially those specifically targeting children and young people under 18.

Influencers as businesses 

When an influencer manages a social media profile through a Danish business registration number (CVR), the influencer will be considered a business. Based on the guidelines from the Consumer Ombudsman, the same applies if the influencer has some kind of commercial purpose with the social media profile. Influencers will therefore very often be considered businesses. 

According to the Consumer Ombudsman the influencers themselves and their social media content will be considered "products" in such case, and all posted content (irrespective of whether it includes advertising for third parties) must therefore comply with the Marketing Practices Act. 

Content targeting children and young people 

When all such content must comply with the Marketing Practices Act, influencers who target children or young people have to be extra cautious, as content cannot feature, for example, alcohol or "unsuitable" products such as energy drinks or describe or feature dangerous situations.

Content is for example considered directed at children and young people if it targets them or features products appealing to them, like toys or candy. The same applies if a non-insignificant part of an influencer's followers (typically more than 12%) or viewers of the content are under 18 or if the platform itself is targeted at young people (such as TikTok). 

See the Consumer Ombudsman's guidance on 'Marketing directed at children and young people', which has just been updated, for more information about this.

Markings of advertising 

Furthermore, the Consumer Ombudsman has updated its guidelines regarding 'Covert advertising on social media'. 

Influencers are still advised to write "reklame for..." or "annonce for…" at the beginning of each post and mark all posts individually. This also applies when influencers market their own products. Even though professional influencers themselves are considered to be a product, see above, the Consumer Ombudsman has clarified that posts where influencers do not advertise their own or other companies' products do not, as a general rule, need to be marked as advertising. 

In the updated guidelines, the Consumer Ombudsman also recommends not solely using social media platforms' standard advertisement markings, as most do not meet the requirements for clear advertisement marking.

Read more in the Consumer Ombudsman's press release here, which also includes links to the new matters and updated guidelines.