The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken action against five Instagram accounts for failing to clearly label commercial links in their posts as advertisements. These cases highlight the intricate nature of affiliate marketing, often involving multiple parties like brands, networks, subnetworks, and influencers.

From The Affiliate and Partner Marketing Association:

The ASA upholds the CAP code, a set of rules that govern non-broadcast advertising, sales promotions, and direct marketing in the UK. It last updated explicit guidance for ad disclosure and affiliate marketing in May 2023.

Regarding social media posts, the ASA states “if an influencer’s social media post depicts and refers to a brand for which the influencer has signed up as an affiliate advertiser, the CAP Code is likely to apply to the post in its entirety”.

Rule 2.1 of the CAP Code requires that marketing communications are identifiable as such. The Code also states that marketing communications must make clear their commercial intent, if that is not obvious from the context. This is where the requirement to label affiliate links kicks in.

While the ASA has not provided explicit guidance for every type of affiliate on achieving compliance with the Code, it has previously ruled that a lack of consumer understanding of the term ‘affiliate’ against commercial links means this should not be used. Instead, the use of ‘ad’ or ‘#ad’ alongside affiliate links has become standard.

The ASA also recognises that some affiliate content is obviously commercial in intent (such as cashback or advertising banners) and does not require disclosure, but there are some blurred lines that affiliates will need to take legal advice for or make a decision based on how easily identifiable content is as commercial in intent.
Read more here: https://theapma.co.uk/what-the-lates...ate-marketing/