The Consumer Agency has ruled that two Icelandic social media influencers were not clear enough that some of their Instagram posts were in fact product advertisements. The Agency has banned both Sólrun Lilja Diego Elmarsdóttir and Tinna Alavisdóttir from using hidden advertising on the platform in the future, threatening fines if they do so.
The Agency was tipped off about the potential advertisements and requested information from the two women about whether or not they had received remuneration from the relevant companies for making the posts as well as how the business relationships with the companies were conducted. Although neither Sólrún nor Tinna received cash payments for the advertisements, they did receive free products in exchange for the promotion.
The consumer agency considered these “gifts” to be remuneration and that the Instagram posts did not make it sufficiently clear that they were made for commercial purposes.
