Advertising and influencers in Spain: the road to transparency

The rise of social networks has changed the paradigm in advertising. Advertisements are designed by and for consumers, and a clear example is the use of “influencers” in advertising. In most cases, these content creators have total freedom on how to offer the product. Consumers follow their adventures as a form of entertainment.

This freedom and their proximity to the public has set the alarm bells ringing over their advertising methods, which could be considered surreptitious advertising and therefore prohibited. As already explained in this blog, the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) published the Best Practice Recommendation on Influencer Marketing in order to unify standards.

Following this recommendation, different advertising self-regulatory organizations have decided to create their own codes of conduct to create a safe environment around advertising through influencers. The first example was the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), whose Guide we summarized in an post a few weeks ago.

In Spain, advertising through influencers is regulated by article 20 of the Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce Act (LSSI), as well as by the General Advertising Act and Unfair Competition Act. Both the advertiser and the commercial nature of the content must be clearly identified.

The Spanish Association of Advertisers (AEA) together with Autocontrol (Spanish advertising SRO) have submitted to the Secretary of State for Digital Advancement the “Code of Conduct on the use of influencers in advertising.” Although the text has not yet been made public, it seems that in the line of its predecessors it will focus on the correct identification of commercial communications.

This Code, like that of EASA and the CMA, will be voluntary except for AEA and Autocontrol members, which will be bound from its adoption. From then on, Autocontrol’s Advertising Jury will decide on any complaints for non-compliance with the Code.

By Esther Ballesteros