Thursday the French parliament has approved definitively, and unanimously, the proposed inter-party law on the regulation of the online promotional activities of influencers, for some time accused of not being transparent in presenting advertisements as such, or of promoting products of dubious reliability or origin.
The new law creates the legal conditions to legally recognize a profession not yet covered by French law, that of influencer, and which until now had to follow rules that were not suitable or previously designed for other professions. In the text of the law, influencers are now defined as “natural or legal persons who, for a fee or other benefits, use their reputation with their audience to communicate online content aimed at promoting, directly or indirectly, goods, services or other causes ».
In France there was already a law requiring influencers to explicitly declare when a published content is of an advertising nature: the new law goes into more detail.
He writes The world That the law definitively voted by the Senate prohibits the promotion of certain practices, such as cosmetic surgery or therapeutic desistance, i.e. the practice of doctors who decide to interrupt therapies deemed futile for terminally ill patients. It also prohibits or limits the promotion of certain medical devices, nicotine-containing products, sports betting and gambling, which can only be advertised by platforms that prohibit access to minors.
In the case of retouched promotional images, using filters or more complex methods, these must be indicated as such to the public.
In case of violations, the foreseen offenses are fraud or breach of trust. The penalties reach up to two years in prison and fines of 300,000 euros. However, there are skepticisms about the French authorities’ ability to police these new rules, especially regarding influencers operating from states outside the European Union, for whom the government is asking for the appointment of legal representatives for Europe.
France is particularly attentive to these issues and has a consolidated history of preventive and sanctioning interventions to regulate internet activities. Last year, for example, the government created a “Laboratory for the protection of children online” to devise measures that preserve the privacy of children by protecting them from phenomena such as cyberbullying and abuse of various kinds (several large platforms such as Google, Amazon and social network have undertaken to sign the manifesto).