The Ministry of Development participated in a pan-European audit of 576 influencers using "sweep" scans across all social media platforms to identify misleading commercial activity.

The audit, at pan-European level, took place from 27/10/2023 to 30/11/2023 and involved 22 competent authorities from EU Member States. The coordination of the checks was carried out by the European Commission through the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC Network). Specifically, national authorities in individual countries are responsible for enforcing EU consumer protection legislation in their cross-border purchases, and Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004 on cooperation in the field of consumer protection created a network of competent public enforcement bodies to address consumer protection issues.

The audits concerned a total of 576 "influencers" from all over Europe, 20 of them from Greece.

The audit of Greek influencers found, among other things, that while 100% of them engage in commercial activity, only 25% - and not always in a very clear way - disclose to the consumer that the content of their posts has a commercial purpose (e.g. includes advertisements).

50% do not provide clear information to the consumer about their commercial identity, while of those who have their own sales websites, 50% state that they are registered in the General Commercial Register (G.C.M.E.).

The 20 Greek influencers are expected to receive a letter from the Ministry of Development in which they will be informed in detail and will be asked to take the necessary corrective actions immediately so that their activities are in line with European consumer legislation.

In particular, in the letter that the 20 Greek "influencers" will receive from the Ministry of Development:

(a) the EU legislation and the consumer protection law in Greece applicable to the commercial communications of all "influencers" are highlighted

(b) highlight the points in the posts of the "influencers" where they need to be improved, especially with regard to the cases of disclosure of commercial communication in order to promote products/services, so as to contribute in this way to the formation of a correct commercial communication with the consumer, which will be governed by transparency and

(c) recommendations are proposed for the use of appropriate labelling, given that commercial communication to promote a product or service should be presented in such a way that it is immediately clear to the consumer that it is a promotional activity. In this context, "influencers" should use the hashtags #advertisement or #advertising or #advertising, as well as the specific disclosure tools available from the platforms themselves: "paid partnership", "paid partnership", "paid partnership" to ensure that the consumer audience is aware that the communication to promote a product or service has an advertising content.

It is important that influencers and especially those who are "new" in this industry are informed and comply with the current Greek law, as well as with the EU Regulations and Directives, especially with Law 2251/1994 in conjunction with the European Directive 2005/29/EC and Directive (EE)  2019/2161, which amends Directive 2005/29/EC in terms of better enforcement and modernization of EU consumer protection rules regarding new developments in the market.

For more information about the Cooperation Network for the enforcement of Consumer Legislation click here

For more information on the pan-European audit of 576 "influencers" to identify misleading commercial practices in cooperation with the Ministry of Development click here