Influencer marketing: In the future, only paid or otherwise remunerated posts will have to be marked as advertising. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)
January 20, 2021, 4:30 p.m.
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In the future, influencers really only need to mark the posts as advertising for which they have received something in return. The cabinet has now agreed on this.
The federal cabinet has agreed on a draft law that will give influencers more legal certainty in the future. The draft should clearly regulate when influencers have to mark their posts as advertising and when not. In future, the labeling obligation will only apply if influencers have actually been paid for the contribution in question or have received some other consideration for it. In the past, German courts had repeatedly ruled differently on this issue.
In 2018, for example, the Berlin Regional Court ruled that blogger Vreni Frost also had to declare Instagram posts as advertising for which she was not paid. A year later, however, the Munich Regional Court ruled that the influencer Cathy Hummels did not have to label such posts as advertising, since her Instagram profile served a “commercial purpose for any obvious purpose”.
Justice Minister Lambrecht: The draft law suits influencers and consumers
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht expects the change in the law to provide more clarity for influencers and consumers. “In future it will be clear: You only have to mark a post as advertising if there is something in return,” said the SPD politician. In Lambrecht’s view, consumers also benefit from this: “They can better assess how a recommendation came about – and whether they want to trust it.”
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The hitherto unclear legal situation in the German influencer industry has sometimes led to all posts in which products or brands are recognizable are often labeled as advertising. Such “over-labeling” could decrease when the new regulation comes into force.
Also interesting: Influencer marketing: Corona is causing a decrease in advertising postings
