YouTubers, Instagrammers, Facebookers, or TikTokers have been put on notice by Australia’s competition regulator over misleading or undeclared product endorsements.
The move comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined celebrity Kim Kardashian $1 million (AU$1.45 million) in October 2022 for promoting a cryptocurrency brand without declaring she was being paid $250,000 for the endorsement.
On Jan. 27, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it would look into 100 social media influencers after it received 150 complaints from the general public.
Consumers were responding to an ACCC post on Facebook requesting information from the public.
Kim Kardashian attends the 2022 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at Washington Hilton in Washington on April 30, 2022. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
Many of the tip-offs involved social media influencers in the beauty, lifestyle, parenting, and fashion industries who allegedly failed to disclose their relationship with companies they were promoting, according to ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb….