It started, like much of the zeitgeist since the invention of Instagram, with Kim Kardashian.

In January 2023, three months after the daughter of mastermind Kris Jenner reached a $US1.26 million (about $1.93 million) settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for promoting a cryptocurrency without disclosing it was a paid advertisement, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) put Australia’s influencers on notice.

Disclosure-related backlash faced by Sydney influencer Indy Clinton and TBH Skincare co-founder Rachael Wilde has highlighted the grey areas of Australia’s current approach to influencer marketing.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

The watchdog had received more than 150 tip-offs from social media users, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said, concerned about the global $US24 billion (about $36.8 billion) influencer marketing industry’s “ever-increasing number of manipulative marketing techniques… designed to exploit or pressure consumers into purchasing goods or services”.

A formal report released in December 2023 declared 81 per cent of the influencers analysed had shared posts that “raised concerns under [Australian Consumer Law] for potentially misleading advertising”, with “vague or confusing attempts at disclosing brand relationships” identified as an issue. The next step in mitigating the trend would be a targeted guidance document for influencers and brands, the ACCC said, slated for an early 2024 release.

“We are still waiting for this guidance document to be released,” says lawyer Tegan Boorman, founder of Social Law Co and elected chair of self-regulatory Australian Influencer Marketing Council’s (AiMCO) Guiding Council, more than a year on from the ACCC’s initial deadline and amid yet another influencer advertising controversy.

It’s not as if best practice guidelines don’t exist. AiMCO has a Code of Conduct available for members, and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has a published Code of Ethics that forms the basis of Ad Standards investigations. As Boorman notes, however, both codes are voluntary, and non-compliance does not attract any financial penalty (as seen when Rozalia Russian........

© The Sydney Morning Herald