Can influencers promote products without disclosure in Australia?
No, influencers in Australia must disclose commercial relationships when promoting products. Failure to do so can be considered misleading conduct under Australian Consumer Law, potentially leading to penalties from the ACCC.
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How it works in practice
Legal Obligation for Disclosure
In Australia, influencers and businesses engaging in influencer marketing are legally obligated to clearly and conspicuously disclose any commercial relationships. This means that if an influencer receives payment, free products, or any other benefit in exchange for promoting a product or service, they must make this connection obvious to their audience. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) views undisclosed commercial content as potentially misleading or deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
What Constitutes Disclosure?
Effective disclosure must be prominent, clear, and easy for the average consumer to understand. Simply burying a disclosure in a long caption, using ambiguous language, or only disclosing verbally in a video without on-screen text may not be sufficient. Common methods include using hashtags like #ad, #sponsored, or #paidpartnership placed at the beginning of posts, or verbally stating the commercial relationship at the start of video content. The goal is to ensure consumers can immediately identify advertising content, allowing them to make informed purchasing decisions.
Important exceptions
There are limited exceptions where disclosure may not be required. If an influencer genuinely purchased a product and shares their independent, uncompensated opinion without any prior agreement or benefit from the brand, it's generally not considered advertising. Additionally, if the commercial relationship is so obvious that no reasonable person would mistake it for independent content (e.g., an advertisement explicitly labelled as such), further disclosure might be less critical. However, it is always best practice to over-disclose rather than risk breaching consumer law due to ambiguity.
What you should do now
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Always disclose commercial relationships clearly and conspicuously in all promotional content.
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Use unambiguous hashtags like #ad, #sponsored, or #paidpartnership prominently at the start of posts.
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For video content, include verbal disclosure at the beginning and consider on-screen text.
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Review ACCC guidelines regularly to stay updated on best practices and legal requirements.
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Educate your team or any contracted influencers on the importance of transparent disclosure.
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