Help your community meet international advertising disclosure rules on social media.
In Brand Communities, members may have to publish content on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube to take part in product testing campaigns (Social campaign asset), missions (Hashtag / Social post) or contests (Social media type).
As soon as a product is offered for free, these posts legally constitute advertisements.
International and local regulations require an explicit mention of the commercial collaboration:
- DSA (Digital Services Act, EU), applicable since 2024
- French Influence Marketing Law (n°2023-451)
- ASA/CAP + DMCC Act 2024 (United Kingdom)
- Nordic regulations (Konsumentverket SE, Forbrukertilsynet NO, etc.), among the strictest in Europe
The Social Ad Compliance feature is designed to help you and your members respect these rules by making disclosures explicit, verifiable, and enforceable at mission level.
Key international regulations covered
Social posts created in exchange for rewards, free products, discounts, or other benefits are considered advertising content under most current regulations. If disclosures are missing or unclear, brands and creators can face:
- Regulatory sanctions or penalties, including fines
- Removal or restriction of non-compliant content, or a request to relabel the post as advertising
- Reputational damage for both the brand and the creator
The Social Ad Compliance feature is designed to help you handle the main disclosure rules that apply when members publish incentivized social content. The exact wording and placement required can vary by country, platform, and campaign type, please refer to the applicable laws.
European Union - DSA and consumer law
- The Digital Services Act (DSA) is applicable since 2024. It requires that users can clearly identify commercial content as advertising, especially when there is a material connection between the creator and the brand.
- Disclosures must be clear, unambiguous and easily accessible, without requiring extra clicks or scrolling.
- Typical compliant disclosure include phrases like “In collaboration with @brand” or dedicated compliance hashtags such as #ad or #sponsored.
The exact wording may still need to be adapted to the country and the local language.
France - Influence Marketing law (n°2023-451)
- The French Influence Marketing law (n°2023-451) requires that any content promoting a product or service in exchange for remuneration or benefits (gift, for example) be clearly identified as commercial.
- The disclosure must be immediately understandable, visible and not hidden at the end of the caption or behind a See more fold.
- Mentions such as “Publicité”, “En collaboration avec @marque”, “Collaboration commerciale” or hashtags like #publicité, #sponsorisé are commonly required.
United Kingdom - ASA/CAP + DMCC Act 2024
- In the UK, the ASA/CAP Code and the DMCC Act 2024 require that influencer and creator content must clearly disclose when it is advertising. The commercial nature of a post must be obvious to consumers.
- The disclosure must be prominent and upfront, not vague, left to interpretation or hidden.
- Labels like “Ad”, “Advertisement”, or “In partnership with @brand” are commonly used.
If a campaign is gifted or incentivized, the creator should still make the commercial relationship clear. The safer approach is to use a disclosure that is hard to miss at the start of the caption.
Nordic countries - Konsumentverket SE, Forbrukertilsynet NO, etc.
- Nordic consumer authorities (e.g. Konsumentverket in Sweden, Forbrukertilsynet in Norway) are among the strictest in Europe regarding influencer and community marketing.
- They require immediate and explicit identification of commercial content, often with very clear wording in the local language. Disclosures must be placed where consumers see them before engaging with the content, typically at the start of the caption.
- Common formulations include “Reklam / Annons“ depending on the country, “Ad“, “Sponsored“, “In collaboration with @brand“.
In these markets, it is especially important to check the local language and local authority guidance.
Italy - AGCOM and self-regulatory rules
- In Italy, influencer marketing is governed by a mix of consumer-law principles, self-regulatory rules, and more recent AGCOM guidance. Commercial content must be clearly identifiable as advertising.
- Sponsored or rewarded post should clearly show its commercial purpose. The disclosure should be visible, understandable, and not ambiguous. Some Italian guidance also emphasizes early placement.
- Common formulations include “Pubblicità”, “Sponsorizzato da”, “In collaborazione con @marca”, and hashtags like #adv or #pubblicità.
Spain - Influencer advertising code
- In Spain, influencer marketing rules also require a clear distinction between editorial content and advertising content. The commercial nature must be visible and identifiable immediately.
- A post published in exchange for payment, free products, or another benefit must include a clear label. The disclosure should not be vague or buried in the caption.
- Common formulations include “Publicidad”, “En colaboración con @marca”.
You are responsible for ensuring your campaigns comply with the laws that apply to your own market, country and campaign. This feature is a tool to help you enforce your chosen compliance rules, it does not replace legal advice.
How it works
The Social Ad Compliance feature lets you define, at mission level, exactly what members must include in their social posts to be considered compliant. You can combine:
- Compliance hashtags (e.g. #ad, #sponsored)
- Compliance wording: a mandatory phrase in the caption (e.g. “In collaboration with @brand”)
- First position option, which requires the compliance wording to appear before the See more fold in the caption
These requirements are then enforced automatically during mission validation.
For admins: configuring compliance requirements
When you create or edit a social mission (or a social asset for product testing), you can:
- Select the social platform (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube)
- Define content hashtags for the campaign
- Add compliance hashtags required by your legal or brand guidelines
- Optionally enable compliance wording and specify the exact phrase members must include
- Optionally activate First position if the wording must appear at the very beginning of the caption
See how to configure a social mission.
Compliance checks are case-insensitive and accent-insensitive, so small variations in capitalization or accents do not break validation.
For members: a simple, guided experience
Members see all compliance requirements directly in the mission description:
- The brief and guidelines for the campaign
- The validation conditions, including content and compliance hashtags, and any required wording
- A one-click copy button that copies all required hashtags and the compliance wording together
When they submit a post for validation, the system checks in real time whether all compliance elements are present and correctly placed. If something is missing, the member sees a clear, specific error message explaining what to fix (missing compliance hashtag, missing wording, or wording not in first position).
See the full social flow for members.
Members are advised to wait around 5 minutes after publishing or editing their post before submitting it for validation, to allow social platforms’ moderation and caching systems to update.
Benefits for your brand & community
Using the Social Ad Compliance feature helps you:
- Reduce legal risk by ensuring that incentivized posts include the disclosures you require.
- Scale compliance and save time aby avoiding manual verification for each post.
- Improve transparency for consumers, which strengthens trust in your brand and your community.
- Limit support load with simple copy-an-validate flow, automated checks and clear, contextual error messages.
Best practices
- Define compliance rules before launching the campaign, in line with your legal team’s guidance and your market.
- Use short, clear wording that is compliant with the applicable laws (e.g. “In collaboration with @brand”).
- Enable First position when the disclosure must appear before the See more fold.
- Explain the rules clearly to members to increase acceptance and reduce friction.
- Review your compliance settings regularly as regulations and platform norms evolve.
Need help setting up compliance for your campaigns?
If you are unsure which compliance elements to require, speak with your legal team or reach out to your Skeepers contact. Once your rules are defined, the Social Ad Compliance feature lets you enforce them consistently across all your social missions and product testing campaigns.