ASA announces sanctions against influencers who repeatedly break advertising rules

What steps are being proposed by the ASA to hold influencers accountable when failing to disclose their commercial relationships in advertising posts?

The key takeaway

On 18 January 2022, the ASA announced the launch of a new campaign that publicly sanctions influencers for consistently failing to disclose ads on their Instagram accounts. Following the creation of a webpage that names (and shames) non-compliant social media influencers, the ASA have identified six individuals who, despite warnings, have failed to flag ads in their posts, stories or reels. The ASA is now taking out Instagram ads against these individuals, which will alert consumers to their failure to follow the rules. This is the latest initiative from the ASA aimed at battling poor compliance by influencers. The ASA has stated that it is considering further sanctions if needed, which could include working with social media platforms to have the content of non-compliant influencers removed or referring influencers to statutory bodies such as Trading Standards for the consideration of fines. 

The background

The ASA commissioned an “Influencer monitoring report” in March 2021 that assessed whether social media influencers were adhering to advertising disclosure rules. One finding was that only 35% of Instagram ad posts were compliant. There was inconsistent disclosure across stories and influencers regularly made ad labels difficult to spot (by editing the font and colour etc).

The ASA decided to “name and shame” certain influencers on a webpage who they identified as breaking ad rules. The named influencers are subject to enhanced monitoring and remain on the webpage for a minimum of three months. However, the ASA found that these influencers continued to disregard the rules, hence decided to escalate the sanctions. 

The development

Francesca Allen, Jess Gale, Eve Gale, Belle Hassan, Jodie Marsh and Anna Vakili (all TV reality stars) are the first batch of influencers to be subject to the ASA’s new sanction regime. 

Since appearing on the ASA’s “name and shame” webpage, these individuals have failed to abide by the advertising rules and improve disclosure. The ASA is now taking out ads against these influencers on Instagram, alerting consumers to their failure to follow the rules. The ad that consumers will soon see on Instagram will read as follows:

“[Name] has been sanctioned by the UK’s ad regulator for not declaring ads on this platform. Be aware that products and services recommended or featured by this influencer may have been paid for by those brands. Our non-compliant social media influencer page at asa.org.uk is regularly updated to inform consumers of those who break these rules”.

Why is this important?

Brands are now increasingly using influencers to access new target audiences, create brand awareness and meet marketing goals. Before doing so, they should be mindful of working with influencers who adopt a slack approach to advertising disclosures, or worse who repeatedly disregard the CAP Code. Being pulled into a messy regulatory investigation would significantly outweigh the benefits which the influencer association would have had in the first place.

Any practical tips?

Brands collaborating with influencers should:

• think long and hard when deciding which influencer to work with. Collaborating with an influencer who breaches advertising rules could significantly damage a brand’s reputation
• undertake due diligence on influencers, as this will help avoid working with those who seek to artificially inflate their following/paid engagements, or who fail to take simple steps to disclose their advertising relationships, and
• consider providing influencers and talent agencies with clear guidance about the importance of adhering to rules around online advertising and how to do so.