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Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Antitrust, Competition and Trade

It’s Official – Most Influencers Do Not Disclose Commercial Content

On 14 February 2024, the European Commission published the results of a screening, known as a “sweep”, of social media posts from influencers that it had carried out together with the national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States – including Malta –as well as those in Norway and Iceland. The results are out…and perhaps they are hardly surprising. Whilst 97% of influencers were found to publish posts with commercial content, only 20% systematically disclosed these posts as advertising. 38% did not use platform labels to disclose commercial content (for instance the “paid partnership” label on Instagram) but preferred to…
Annalies Muscat
29th February 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Influencer Marketing: Protection for Consumers from #sponsored Posts on Social Media

We all know how important advertising is in the business world. Traders use advertisements as marketing tools to inform customers and consumers about their products. With the rise of technology and social media, advertising is now taking diverse forms. Companies are increasingly turning to a more powerful tool, the ‘influencer’, to advertise their products. This phenomenon is also evident locally.  This article purports to analyse what constitutes influencer marketing and the protection afforded to consumers by Maltese law. What is an ‘influencer’? Maltese law does not define what an influencer is. However, the Consumer Affairs Act (the ‘Act’) defines a…
Laura Spiteri and Annalies Muscat
9th February 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Google Shopping: The Saga Continues

Following an antitrust investigation, in 2017 the European Commission had fined Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. a record €2.4 billion for abuse of Google’s dominant position. In brief, it found that Google was self-preferencing, by presenting results from its own Google Shopping first upon a so called “Google search”. On appeal to the General Court, the fine was confirmed in 2021. The General Court only accepted part of Google and Alphabet’s argument, namely that there was no negative anti-competitive effect on the market for general search services. Google and Alphabet further appealed the General Court’s judgment to the Court of…
Annalies Muscat
12th January 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

The Rise of the Influencer: Consumer Protection and #Sponsored Content

Are you an influencer? Do you earn money or other benefits by creating content on social media? Influencers that are offered deals to advertise a brand’s products over social media platforms will qualify as traders and should thus disclose their adverts in a transparent manner. Over the coming weeks, the European Commission will be screening online posts to identify any sponsored posts uploaded to social media by influencers which could mislead consumers. This article will briefly consider your obligations, as an influencer, on the digital market. The rise of social media has given brand owners the ability to push their…
Laura Spiteri
24th October 2023