• The President of UOKiK is bringing the first charges against three fitness influencers and their advertiser for improperly tagging advertising content on Instagram.
• We remind you once again that #cooperation and #ad are unclear to users and insufficient when tagging a commercial message.
• Also, placing tags at the end of the description or poorly visible tags, e.g. hidden under the user name, can be considered a misleading practice.

Since last September, the President of UOKiK has been saying that sponsored content on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook posted by influencers should be tagged in a way that is unambiguous and raises no doubts among the viewers as to the nature of the post. In his very first announcements, the President of UOKiK noted that tagging content with abbreviations in English, such as #ad, or using only the hashtag #cooperation, was not enough. However, it turns out that some advertisers and influencers, who are entrepreneurs in the eyes of the law, still fail to properly meet their duties.

- For a long time, we have been cautioning the market so that advertisers and influencers themselves are transparent about the commercial nature of social media posts. We pointed out terms that are inadequate and may thus mislead the audience. If the word "cooperation" appealed so much to creators, then they should clearly specify its nature, e.g. as commercial/advertising, so that it raises no doubts among the viewers” – explains Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

First charges of surreptitious advertising

President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny instituted 4 proceedings, bringing charges of improper tagging of advertising materials on social media. The charges of surreptitious advertising were brought against Olimp Laboratories, which outsources ads for its products to social media influencers. The company entered into agreements with creators in which it committed itself to pay them for publishing posts and stories about its dietary supplements and other products on Instagram. In correspondence with the creators, it urged them to use vague tags, contrary to the recommendations made from the very beginning by the Office. Influencers would tag posts or stories with hashtags such as: #olimpad #productname

- The use of a hashtag consisting of a combination of company name and the English abbreviation "AD" has little to do with transparent advertising activities online, especially since Olimp Laboratories refers in emails to its business partners to "UOKiK’s strong interest in the activities of influencers on social media” – states the President of UOKiK.

In addition, the President of UOKiK charged three fitness influencers - Katarzyna Dziurska, Katarzyna Oleśkiewicz-Szuba and Piotr Lisek - with ambiguous tagging of advertising materials on Instagram (both those commissioned by Olimp Laboratories and other advertisers). In their posts, creators promote the products of various advertisers for a fee and do not label sponsored content in a clear, readable and understandable way. Therefore, they may mislead consumers about the nature of these posts and stories.

- We collected materials that confirmed that failure to tag commercial posts online is not due to the negligence of creators, but rather due to the guidelines of advertisers. This is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it. The responsibility for inappropriate tagging of sponsored content lies both with the influencer and the advertiser he or she works with – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

- Influencers cannot blindly do whatever the advertiser tells them to do. They are entrepreneurs, which involves not only providing a service and getting a fee, but also the need to comply with legal obligations and good practices – explains President of UOKiK.

The instituted proceedings may result in fines for violating collective interests of consumers of up to 10% of the turnover.

Obligation to respond to official letters

Apart from the fact that creators and advertisers should bear in mind proper tagging of commercial content, they must fulfil other obligations imposed on entrepreneurs, which includes providing explanations to authorities. We recently reported on the first penalties for failure to cooperate with the President of UOKiK - influencers did not respond to the Office’s inquiries, they failed to pick up post or to present necessary documents. This can make it difficult to investigate practices and significantly prolongs the capacity for fact-finding.

The Office is now finishing work on recommendations for tagging of advertising materials on social media by influencers, which will facilitate compliance with the current law. You can find up-to-date information on this topic on our Instagram account: uokikgovpl.

Consumer support:

Phone: +48 801 440 220 or +48 22 290 89 16 – consumer helpline
e-mail: [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
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL