A code of good conduct for influencers, to prevent them from misleading their fans about the products they promote: this is the project of the French government, which announced on Sunday the opening until the end of January of a public consultation.
Controversies, sometimes followed by fines, regularly erupt over the practices of influencers who do not always disclose their relationships with certain brands. The influencer Nabilla Benattia-Vergara, for example, paid a fine of 20,000 euros for promoting stock services on Snapchat in 2018 without mentioning that she was paid for it.
The Ministry of Economy announced the beginning of this public consultation on December 9, after a round table with representatives of this thriving sector, which for its part advocates self-regulation.
150,000 influential people
“Millions of you consult your opinions, your recommendations in the field of fashion, sports, beauty, travel. Therefore, they play a role in our daily lives. It gives them a special responsibility”, declared the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, about the 150,000 influencers in France.
“It is these discrepancies, these deficiencies, sometimes these traps, that we want to correct with the regulation of this sector,” he continued, referring to his desire to implement a “code of good conduct.”
The consultation, accessible until January 31 at concertation-influenceurs.make.org, “will allow all French people who wish to express themselves on 11 measures divided into four themes”, he specified: the rights and obligations of influencers, intellectual property, protection consumer and industry governance.
Source: BFM TV
