The Guideline on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices Conducted by Social Media Influencers (“Guideline”), which was adopted by Advertisement Board (“Board”) as per its choice numbered 2021/2 and dated 4 May 2021, is preliminary and substantial laws concerning social media influencer’s promoting actions in Turkey.
While the Guideline may be very current in Turkey the Board imposed a number of sanctions on the social media influencers previous to the Guideline on the grounds of the inclinations of Consumer Protection Law numbered 6502 (“Consumer Protection Law”) and the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices (“Regulation”). The newest 4 choices of the Board, rendered in 2021, are additionally indicative for the implementation of the Guideline.
The Guideline stipulates that the social media influencers are required to make use of the hashtags #Collaboration, #Advertisement, and many others. or embrace a declaratory caption for the business communications featured on video-sharing platforms (comparable to Youtube and Instagram TV), picture and message sharing platforms (comparable to Twitter), podcast platforms and different platforms on which the content material is seen for a short while (comparable to Snapchat). Thus, the influencers ought to chorus from creating the impression of being solely a shopper, regardless of the presence of an settlement between the advertiser and the relation with the model have to be clearly disclosed.
In April, the Board ordered for the suspension of the related posts of Duygu Özaslan, a Turkish social media influencer with over 2 million followers, resulting from hidden promoting actions performed by her. The famend influencer marketed a number of well-known logos with out mentioning the commercial options by means of her Instagram social media account. Her tales with “@kleoco”, “@godivatürkiye” and “@miumiu” hashtags and reels posts on Instagram with the statements about “Elidor”, “Mercedes-Benz” and “L’Oréal” logos didn’t include any disclosure concerning the collaboration between the influencer and the model.
In a earlier choice, in March 2021, the Board imposed a financial superb of 104.781,00 TRY (roughly €10.000) on Pınar Altuğ Atacan, a social media influencer as described underneath the Guideline, resulting from meals complement commercials performed through her social media. In her Instagram posts, the well-known actress said the referred meals complement is nonaddictive and good for stress, nervousness and insomnia by advantage of its elements. The Board emphasised that the referred statements are well being claims made with out required authorizations and the posts create a notion that the social media influencer has additionally personally used the meals complement. Thus the posts had been deemed as misleading and opposite to the hidden promoting ban and in opposition to the rules of testimonial promoting.
In March 2021, the Board reviewed the social media account of Merve Boluğur, one other Turkish actress and held that the celeb, as a social media influencer, marketed a meals complement together with her private feedback, evaluations and recommendation. In any case, it’s forbidden to promote meals dietary supplements with well being claims with out authorization of the Turkish Medicinal Products and Medicinal Devices Agency. The claims that may lead the patron to imagine that the social media influencer personally used the product are misleading and thus prohibited. The Board ordered to stop the mentioned posts and imposed an administrative financial superb comparable to TRY 104.781 on the actress.
In an earlier choice, the Board detected that Berk Keklik, an influencer with over 2 million followers, directed his followers to an e-commerce platform by offering hyperlinks to the web site. In his Instagram story, the social media influencer has in contrast numerous merchandise’ costs and claimed that the costs are decrease on the mentioned platform, with none correct disclosure. The Board deemed posts as hidden promoting and ordered that the influencer stop the referred posts.
In every case, the Board imposed administrative sanctions to the social media influencers because of the violation of the hidden promoting ban regulated by the Regulation even whereas the Guideline was not enacted. The Guideline offered clear definitions of social media and social media influencer and stipulated the legal responsibility of the advertiser and the media organizations for social media influencer’s acts. Moreover, the statements to be made for every platform and their formal necessities will set up a uniform and honest business follow in the sunshine of the Board’s choices.
