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Influencers will soon be regulated by law. France is taking over this thorny issue after numerous cases of fraud or abuse. It will no longer be possible to do everything and anything during product placements or other hidden advertisements. The objective of this text is to clarify the obligations that the 150,000 French influencers must respect.
Prohibition to promote cosmetic surgery, obligation to apply the same rules on the networks as for traditional advertising… In the influencer sector, which has experienced many abuses and made many victims, it will be necessary to sanction.
« When you are touted a product, that a product is placed without indicating that you are financed by a brand, it is not honest. When you are told about the qualities of a product that it does not have, it is called fraud. I think abuses should be punished for protect influencers and protect consumers » explains Bruno le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance.
I want to tell the French that we will be there to protect them.
I want to say to the influencers who do not respect the law, that we will not let anything pass anymore. No drift, no abuse.— Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) March 24, 2023
Signaling and control brigade
A reporting system will be put in place. There will also be the strengthening of controls with the creation of a brigade at Bercy. These solutions are effective, according to the socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte, at the origin of the bill. « Today, it is the law of the jungle on social networks and in particular, in influence. This law of the jungle, in six months, it will be over because Parliament will have seized on a cross-partisan way to regulate a sector which, moreover, requires it “, he assures.
The request was made in particular by Carine Fernandez, president of Union of Influencers and Content Creators. Account suspensions of outlaw influencers will also be made easier. The sanction and above all la clarification “, insists the Ministry of the Economy, which does not want to slow down the development of this sector.
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