Revision of Influencer-Advertiser Disclosure Guidelines... "Prevention of Deceptive Advertising in Recommendations and Endorsements"

Fair Trade Commission Prepares Guideline Revision... Administrative Notice Until May 19
"YouTube Recommendations and Endorsement Ads Must Include Display Phrases in Post Titles or at the Beginning and End"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] A revised guideline has been prepared to clearly indicate the economic interests between influencers and advertisers to prevent consumers from being harmed by recommendation and endorsement advertisements on social networking services (SNS).

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on the 29th that it has prepared a revision of the "Guidelines for Review of Indications and Advertisements Related to Recommendations and Endorsements" (Recommendation and Endorsement Review Guidelines) and will publicly notify it for 20 days from today until the 19th of next month.

The FTC believes that by clearly disclosing the economic interests between influencers and advertisers, it will prevent consumer damage caused by deceptive advertising and contribute to the protection of consumer rights.

According to the FTC, recently, deceptive consumer advertisements disguised as product reviews without indicating the payment of economic compensation have been increasing on SNS platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.

Last November, the FTC imposed corrective orders and fines totaling 269 million KRW on seven businesses for deceptive advertising on SNS without disclosing economic interests.

The FTC considers that the current guidelines, which mainly consist of principles and cases related to text-based recommendations and endorsements on blogs, internet cafes, and Twitter, have limitations in regulation.

Therefore, taking into account the diverse characteristics of SNS, the FTC plans to enhance the effectiveness of the review guidelines by newly establishing disclosure methods and examples for major SNS media such as photos and videos. This will also increase predictability regarding legal violations.

First, to make it easy for consumers to find, the economic interest disclosure phrase will be displayed close to the recommendation or endorsement content.

For text, appropriate size, font, and color that distinguish it from the background will be selected, and for audio, it will be expressed in a way that consumers can easily recognize without adjustments to sound or speed.

Monetary support such as cash and gift certificates, product discounts, sponsorships, and other economic interests will be clearly indicated in a way that consumers can easily understand. The language used will be the same as that of the recommendation or endorsement content, preferably in Korean.

Recommendation and endorsement advertisements will also have example regulations by media type. For text-based recommendations and endorsements mainly used in blogs and internet cafes, the disclosure phrase will be placed at the beginning or end of the post, separated from the main text. Additional actions such as "See more" will not be required.

For recommendations and endorsements using videos such as YouTube, the disclosure phrase will be clearly inserted in the post title or at the beginning and end. The phrase will be repeated so that consumers who watch only part of the broadcast can easily recognize the existence of economic interests.

For real-time broadcasts such as AfreecaTV, the video method will be followed, but if subtitles cannot be inserted in real time, the disclosure will be expressed through audio.

Additionally, the guideline stipulates that the "employment relationship with the advertiser," which can affect the credibility of the advertisement, be included in economic interests and disclosed. Acts such as celebrities intentionally exposing or mentioning specific products or brands on SNS or linking to product information sites are newly established as examples of recommendations and endorsements.

Goo Seongrim, Director of the Consumer Safety Information Division at the FTC, said, "With this guideline revision, we expect to reflect the changed consumer environment including various SNS characteristics and clearly disclose the economic interests between influencers and advertisers to prevent consumer damage caused by deceptive advertising."

The FTC plans to finalize and implement the revision after sufficiently hearing stakeholders' opinions during the public notice period and going through committee approval.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.