EU Draft Fairness Act Would Force Influencers to Label Paid Posts

Sponsored posts would carry an explicit "advertisement" or "commercial collaboration" label under a draft EU Digital Fairness Act seen by Agence France-Presse — and brands would no longer be allowed to task influencers with pushing products at children, or with persuading parents to buy on a child's behalf.

EU Consumer Protection Chief Michael McGrath is due to unveil the proposal Wednesday, according to AFP. For affiliate and influencer marketers running CPA, CPL or rev-share campaigns into the EU, the draft, if enacted, would convert what is now a patchwork of soft guidance into a labeling obligation with the force of consumer-protection law.

What does the draft actually change?

The influencer provisions sit inside a broader consumer-protection overhaul. The draft documents would:

• Require creators to label sponsored videos and posts as "advertisement" or "commercial collaboration."
• Bar brands from asking influencers to encourage children to buy products, or to persuade their parents to buy items in commercial content.
• Ban "dark patterns" — interface features designed to steer users toward a seller's preferred choice.
• Prohibit false claims about a product's availability or popularity, including manufactured scarcity.
• Ban "drip pricing," where fees surface only at the end of a purchase, and require sellers to show the full order price before checkout.
• Bar "pay-to-win" and "pay-to-progress" mechanics in video games offered to minors, and force in-game currencies to display their real-world value.
• Give users the right to disable autoplay and unrelated notifications, and require platforms to warn consumers when a free trial ends, with the end date and the cost of continuing.

Note the caveats. AFP has seen draft documents, not a final proposal. Drafts routinely change before publication, and the text due Wednesday may narrow or soften specific provisions.

How bad is current compliance?

The Commission has already measured the gap the draft aims to close. In a 2024 sweep, the European Commission and consumer authorities from 22 member states, Norway and Iceland reviewed posts by 576 influencers. Of those, 97% posted commercial content, but only about 20% systematically indicated that posts were advertisements, according to a December 2025 European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) briefing.

Roughly 38% skipped platform-provided labels such as "paid partnership" and used vaguer terms — "collaboration," "thanks to the brand" — instead. For programs paying on conversions from undisclosed placements, that behavior is precisely what the draft targets.

The EU currently has no single, dedicated influencer-marketing law. The EPRS briefing said relevant rules are scattered across consumer protection, audiovisual media and digital regulation. Under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, failing to disclose a trader's commercial intent counts as a misleading omission. EPRS also said responsibilities across the value chain — including the brands whose products influencers promote — remain unclear. A 2024 fitness check of EU consumer law reached the same conclusion on legal uncertainty.

Several member states have not waited for Brussels. France adopted a dedicated influencer law in 2023. Spain issued a royal decree in 2024 covering high-profile influencers. Italy's communications regulator adopted a binding code of conduct in July 2025, and the Netherlands maintains a Social Media and Influencer Advertising Code.

Where does the industry stand?

EPRS recorded divided positions. The European Consumer Organisation BEUC wants binding rules, standardized labeling and joint liability among influencers, agencies and brands. The European Brands Association AIM has asked for an EU definition of "influencer" and shared liability across the advertising chain. The European Influencer Marketing Alliance prefers practical guidance and stronger enforcement over new legislation. TikTok, per the briefing, has rejected inflexible mandatory rules on how commercial content must be disclosed.

Nothing is settled yet. The proposal's path through Parliament and the Council will determine whether "collaboration" captions become a legal liability — and whether brands, not just creators, share the exposure. Watch Wednesday's unveiling for the final labeling language and any liability provisions that survive into the published text.