Guidelines for Social Media Influencers

A social media influencer is an individual with a large or targeted audience of followers who has the potential to affect the purchase decisions of others and who may be approached by brands to promote their products or services.

Advertising standards aim to ensure that any paid content is clearly labelled as such. This means that consumers should be able to identify when a post by a social influencer is an ad, and when it is not.

Here is an overview of existing (self-)regulatory Guidelines implemented in ICAS markets worldwide to ensure a transparent disclosure of ads by social media influencers. Many of these guidelines are inspired by and consistent with the ICC Marketing Code.

Remark: “n.a.” means that Guidelines are currently not available for this market.

Country	Guidelines	Document date	Language
Australia	Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics Practice Note and The AiMCO Influencer Marketing Code of Practice	02/2021 and 08/2022	EN
Belgium	Recommendations of the Communications Center regarding Influencer Marketing	25/04/2022	FR, NL
Brazil	Guia de Publicidade Por Influenciadores Digitais and Tabela Pratica Para Influenciadores	08/12/2020	PT
Canada	Influencer Disclosure Guidelines and Interpretation Guideline #5	Fall 2023	EN
Chile	SERNAC Interpretative Circular on native advertising and influencers	13/07/2022	EN
Colombia	Guia Guía de Buenas Prácticas en la Publicidad a Través de Influenciadores	2020	ES
Greece	Influencer Marketing (Appendix to the Greek Advertising Code)	7/11/2023	GR
Spain	Code of Conduct on the Use of Influencers	Fall 2020	ES
France	RECOMMANDATION COMMUNICATION PUBLICITAIRE NUMÉRIQUE V5 and Other Resources	01/01/2022	FR
Ireland	Guidance on Influencer Advertising and Marketing	27/10/2023	EN
India	Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media	05/2021	EN
Italy	Social Network and Content Sharing Section of the IAP Digital Chart and further information on Influencers	updated June 2023	IT
Malaysia	Content Code	May 2022	EN
The Netherlands	Social Media & Influencer Marketing Code	updated 2022	NL
New Zealand	Ad Help Information for Influencers and Influencer Check List	08/2021	EN
Peru	Guía de Publicidad para Influencers	14/11/2019	ES
Philippines	ASC Digital Guidelines for Regulated and Non-Regulated Categories	15/02/2017	EN
Portugal	Best Practice Guidance on Influencer Marketing and Native Advertising	03/2024	PT
Romania	Romanian Advertising Code	26/08/2018	EN, RO
Singapore	Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media	29/08/2016	EN
South Africa	under development
Sweden	Swedish Consumer Agency Guidance on marketing in blogs and other sociale media	07/05/2018	SE
Turkey	OSYAL MEDYA ETKİLEYİCİLERİ TARAFINDAN YAPILAN TİCARİ REKLAM VE HAKSIZ TİCARİ UYGULAMALAR HAKKINDA KILAVUZ	5/05/2021	TR
United Arab Emirates	A Guide to Influencer Marketing in the United Arab Emirates Best Practices Charter	07/04/2021	EN
United Kingdom	Influencers' guide to making clear that ads are ads	23/03/2023	EN
USA	FTC Guide on the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising and “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers” (the “Guide”)	17/12/2012 and 5/11/2019	EN