DYes Federal Court It suddenly ended the careless handling of sneaky shots by Internet celebrities: When they praised the product in ebullient language, they must clearly mark it on social media platforms such as Instagram. Well-known internet celebrity Cathy Hummels can breathe a sigh of relief: In her case, the judges thought that she had once played a blue plush elephant on the channel, and there was no problem.
Specifically, the lawsuit involves three influencers who regularly post photos on Instagram. It is usually about daily life: fitness, vacations, raising children, raspberry jam. Because of its wide range and precision, the advertising industry often uses women to inform its followers about new shoes or cosmetics. Usually they also operate online stores. This has long been due to an alarming lack of attention to the rules of free competition: such advertisements must be clearly marked for consumers. On the other hand, the accused women often mentioned freedom of speech.
A wave of warnings against many influencers
As a result, the Social Competition Association detected “unacceptable secret advertising” and issued a warning to many influential people. Three of these cases have now been submitted to the Federal Court, which took the opportunity to set limits in this regard.
In both cases, the judges had no problems with the influencers’ practices Cathy Hummels: Judging from these circumstances, they are already commercially active. Hummels marked this on Instagram posts about business partner products: “Pay for cooperation with…” Therefore, there is no need to prohibit consumer protection.
Otherwise, for the judges, whether there is a business connection between the influencer and the manufacturer is very important. If this does not exist, they are not so strict. In this case, the contribution needs to be marked as an advertisement only when the overall impression is “exaggerated”, that is, if it does not have any critical distance from the product. Then leave the presentation “frame of factual information.”
The judges emphasized that “clicking a label” is not automatic. They work like this: if you click on a photo that has been posted on the web, the information about the manufacturer’s brand that can be seen in the picture is displayed. That’s still no problem. Only when a second click takes the user directly to the corresponding company’s page does the post become tricky: then the influencer must mark the content as an ad-whether they are rewarded or not.
