• You have the right to know whether a post or social media story is an advertisement or influencer's disinterested opinion.
• Guidelines for influencers on the tagging of advertising content are in the final stage of development. We are in dialogue with the industry organisations and marketing agencies.
• Before publishing recommendations - we would like to know your opinion on tagging commercial content posted by influencers on social media. Take part in the discussion on the UOKiK's profile on Instagram.

Since December 2021, under the leadership of the President of UOKiK, consultations have been held with the industry organisations and marketing agencies to develop guidelines for social media users (SoMe) with regard to commercial content tagging. Representatives of UOKiK together with the Association of Internet Industry Employers IAB Polska, SAR Marketing Communication Association and the Advertising Council are finishing works on recommendations.  They will include practical examples of commercial forms of cooperation on the web and principles of tagging them, as well as recommended ways of providing relevant  information to users.

- An intensively developing social media market must have transparent rules. Drawing a line between paid message and independent opinion, defining cases of self-promotion, setting rules for barter tagging - these are just some examples of guidelines currently being developed at UOKiK. We wish to supplement our existing reflections and proposals with the views of web users - both consumers themselves and individual influencers. That is why, starting from today, I would like to encourage you to express your opinions on the UOKiK's profile on Instagram. Every single voice is important and will have an impact on the rules being developed, says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

Consumer! You have the right to know whether a post or social media story is an advertisement or influencer's disinterested opinion. You also have the right to be protected against fraudulent purchases or scams. The right to reliable information is your basic right as an online user. This should be born in mind by advertisers and marketing agencies, and above all, by influencers.

The UOKiK is asking - what is your opinion about...?

Starting from today, we are launching a discussion on some aspects of guidelines concerning the social media sponsorship tagging. We would like to know your views on this as a creator or follower of social media content. Share your experiences and good practices with us. Feel free to discuss how to tag a PR package, private label or affiliate links. Over the next two weeks, we will be publishing questions concerning, among other things, the boundaries between independent opinion and brand commitment. Get involved - like, comment, share! Feel free to visit UOKiK's profile on Instagram.

Apart from the activities concerning preparation of the guidelines, the President of UOKiK is currently conducting 2 proceedings in which, among other things, he is verifying tagging of commercial content on social media and suspicions of scamming.

- There is a significant improvement in the labelling of online advertising content since crypto-advertising and scam investigations were launched. This is not only due to our actions, but also to the pressure caused by cases publicised by the market. When analysing the tagging of commercial materials, we focus both on those messages that are not tagged as advertising or commercial collaborations at all and those where the tags used conceal the sponsored nature of collaboration. I hope that the market will strongly verify unfair practices even before the guidelines are introduced. We appeal to influencers who are still tagging their content incorrectly to change vague, low-meaning tags like: #collaboration, #ad or #promo to the ones that are correct and understandable to their community. We encourage influencers to verify cooperation offers at all times and refuse to advertise suspicious products or services - adds the President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny.

As part of the proceedings conducted, the President of UOKiK demanded information from both the authors and advertising agencies or advertisers, e.g. on contracts concluded, rules of cooperation and marking of published content. Unfortunately, some of the addressees did not answer the questions asked or did not send the required documents.  Therefore, the President of UOKiK is currently conducting 7 proceedings concerning imposition of penalty on influencers for failure to cooperate with the Office. The first ones were mentioned in the November announcement, and the newest ones are conducted against: Paweł Malinowski from Gdynia, Marcin Malczyński from Wrocław and Weronika Bielik from Warsaw.

In accordance with the law, failure to cooperate with the President of UOKiK in the course of activities is punishable by a financial sanction of up to EUR 50 million. Moreover, for misleading consumers, the President of UOKiK may impose a penalty of up to 10% of turnover.

Consumer support:
Phone: 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 – consumer hotline
Email: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE]
Consumer Ombudsmen – in your town or district

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
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Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL