Influencers Under Scrutiny

The Colombian Consumers Protection Authority issued a document called: “Good Practices Guide for Advertisement through Influencers”.

The Guide is not a new regulation, is more a suggested line of behavior, but the interesting part of it is that for the first time, influencers are told what they can or cannot do and what are the consequences of their action of advertisement.

The importance of the Guide is that it accommodates the Consumer Protection Statute to the specific situations surrounding the influencer’s advertisement activities.

Some of the relevant points are the following:

All deceiving advertisement is forbidden.

If the contractual relationship between the influencer and the advertiser is not clear for the consumer, the influencer might be qualified as advertiser and responds as such for any claim.

If an influencer publicizes an advertisement message without any contractual relationship with an advertiser, the influencer will act as an advertiser and responds as such for any claim.

If there is a contractual relationship between the influencer and the advertiser, and it is clear in the ad, the influencer will respond as the media. The media is only liable when is aware that the advertisement does not comply with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Statute.

Hence, influencers can be held liable depending on the activity they are preforming and their role within it.