The bill aimed at regulating the activities of influencers has been adopted by the National Assembly and the Senate. Clubic has listed for you the changes that will come into force very soon.
The text will have been adopted in record time. Presented to Parliament by the ministers on March 24, the bill aimed at better regulating influencers, their practices and their excesses on social networks, was definitively adopted this week by the National Assembly, then by the Senate. . France thus becomes the first European country to define a regulatory framework for this very lucrative sector of commercial influence. All this in 14 points, and around two axes: support for influencers on the one hand, and consumer protection and the numerous prohibitions imposed on the other.
Guide to good conduct; legal definition of status; minors: the contours of the influencer finally drawn in the eyes of the law
The act creates a legal definition of commercial influence activity. Officially, it is therefore ” the practice which consists, for a fee, in mobilizing its notoriety with its audience to communicate to the public by electronic means content aimed at promoting, directly or indirectly, goods, services or any cause “. The agent of influence is now also the subject of a legal definition, he who represents the influencers.
The text creates the obligation to establish a written contract between influencers, agencies and brands, and this when the relationship has a financial stake. A threshold will also soon be set to exclude from this obligation contracts whose amounts are derisory for the influencer.
In addition, and the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire insisted on it, influencers will have to follow the provisions of the guide to good conduct, which is now widely distributed to influencers, agencies and brands. As an extension of this previous measure, each year the ” Foundations of responsible influence », a meeting which will be held in Bercy and which will make it possible to adapt the regulatory framework, by bringing together influencers as well as advertisers, agencies, regulatory authorities and other actors linked to the sector.
Content creators will need to have a “ responsible influence “. However, the government regrets its absence from the text, even if it hopes that influencers will undergo training or a certificate, allowing them to apply good practices. The ministers wanted to make this passage compulsory. However, they were able to obtain protection from underage influencers.
For creators under the age of 16 whose image is used for commercial purposes, it will be necessary to obtain approval from the State services. And 90% of the income they could earn from their commercial influence activity will have to be set aside until they come of age. Minors under the age of 16 who are solicited by an influence agency must obtain authorization from their parents, who must sign the minor’s employment contract.
Influence Brigade; obligations ; bans and sanctions: it’s no longer a joke for influencers
The Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) hosts a “ commercial influence brigade », which today consists of its first 15 agents. It monitors social networks, responds to reports received on Signal Conso and can take sanctions. The DGCCRF has just pinned 6 very popular influencers (Capucine Anav, Illan Castronovo, Anthony Mateo, Gaetan Debled, Simon Castaldi, Léa Montchicourt), requiring them to display an explanatory banner on their social networks. Creators established abroad will also be better supervised, with the obligation, among other things, to take out insurance with an insurer established in the European Union.
Several obligations and prohibitions will apply to influencers, once the law is enacted:
- Obligation of transparency of photos, retouched videos and representations of a silhouette or a face produced by artificial intelligence. It should be noted that this obligation is directly inspired by that imposed on advertising photographs, which modify the bodily appearance of models.
- Prohibition of the promotion of certain services, goods or causes: the law here targets cosmetic surgery, nicotine, health procedures, medicine, therapeutic abstention and wild animals
Dropshipping, this practice of promoting an online sales site and products that are not actually in stock, is now regulated. The content creator must ensure that the product(s) are in stock. At the same time, social networks must, like influencers, clearly identify commercial publications in the eyes of users.
Finally, the last point relates to sanctions. For an influencer, not indicating on his account the advertising nature of a video or photo will be considered a misleading commercial practice. The latter will incur up to 2 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros if he does not comply, or even 7 years in the event of aggravating circumstances.
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