Micro influencer marketing: UK ASA and CMA disclosure rules

What to take away

Micro influencer marketing campaigns in the UK face two sets of expectations. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) administers advertising rules, while consumer protection law is enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Trading Standards. Both expect incentivised content to be clearly identifiable as advertising.

Where ASA advice stops and CMA guidance starts

The ASA administers the non-broadcast Advertising Code (CAP Code). Section 2, rule 2.1 says marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such; rule 2.3 says they must not falsely claim or imply that the marketer is acting as a consumer. The ASA's Influencers' guide to making clear that ads are ads explains how this applies when a creator has a payment, other incentive or commercial or personal connection to a brand.

The CMA's guidance for content creators, Social media endorsements: being transparent with your followers, applies the same test from the consumer side. If you have been incentivised to promote a brand or product, the content must be clearly labelled as an ad and based on your genuine experience. The guidance covers paid posts, gifts and content about your own business.

In practice a brand should not choose between the two. Make the commercial relationship clear and prominent in the post itself, and record the approach in your rules and compliance notes before you brief creators. A missed label belongs among the risk scenarios you rehearse for each campaign.

What a UK micro-influencer post needs

The CMA guidance for content creators says all labels must be clear, prominent and easy to understand. It applies if you received a product for free or at a discount, or any other incentive, no matter how many followers you have.

The CMA also says not to rely on your bio, previous posts or links for followers to discover your relationship with the brand. Put the label at the beginning of the caption, before any 'see more' cut-off, and on every Story frame so it is visible whichever frame a viewer sees first. A platform's paid-partnership label can add context, but should not be relied on as the only disclosure. A prominent #ad can identify advertising; plain 'Ad' or 'Advert' is the CMA's recommended wording. Do not bury the label among hashtags.

The ASA's research found that social media users struggle to tell advertising from other content when influencers use the same editorial style for both. A vague tag does not do the job, so make the label's meaning clear. Use the same wording across a campaign so that the audience learns to recognise it.

A spoken line in video and on-screen text give a viewer who has the sound off a second chance to see the label. The CMA recommends 'Ad' or 'Advert' as the wording. Whoever briefs micro influencers should state the exact label and its position in writing.

How the CMA treats gifts and own-brand posts

Under CMA guidance, any form of incentive or reward counts as payment, including discounts, loans and gifts of any products. The guidance also covers posts about gifts received for free, even when the brand asks for nothing in return. Treat free products as an incentive that calls for a label.

Own-brand promotion is covered too. If a creator posts about their own business or products, the content must be identifiable as an ad. The guidance applies to formal agreements and to informal arrangements, including verbal ones, so a casual message that offers a free product still counts.

What brands and agencies must do

The CMA's Social media endorsements: guidance for brands says businesses should take responsibility for making sure paid-for endorsements are properly labelled. It says to check content that refers to your brand and to correct anything mislabelled promptly.

The guidance also says to set the disclosure duty out in your contract. Put it in the commercial contracts you sign with creators.

Where content is published on your behalf, the brand may be held responsible if it is misleading or otherwise non-compliant. If a creator repeatedly fails to label content correctly, the CMA says you are at risk if you keep working with them. Send gifts with clear instructions that any resulting post must be labelled as an ad.

Enforcement and penalties

GOV.UK says the unfair commercial practices rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act mean you cannot mislead consumers. Breaking the rules can lead to a report to Trading Standards, prosecution, or enforcement action with a penalty of up to £300,000 or 10% of global turnover, whichever is higher.

Earlier CMA social media endorsement guidance referred to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008; the current unfair commercial practices regime is in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The ASA's route is separate: it publishes rulings, names non-compliant advertisers on its website, issues Ad Alerts and may refer cases to Trading Standards. These are self-regulatory measures, not the statutory financial penalties described above.

The risk usually sits with the brand as well as the creator, because the brand sets the brief and benefits from the promotion. Keep the brief, the agreed label and the published post together, so that the file shows why an item was labelled as it was.

A worked example

Hypothetical example: a skincare brand sends a £40 serum to a micro-influencer and asks for one Reel and one Story, with approval over the caption.

The creator keeps the serum, which counts as an incentive, so both pieces need a clear label such as 'Ad' where a viewer sees it first. The brand files the brief, the approval and screenshots of the first view.

If the creator posts without the label, the brand asks for a correction straight away and notes the breach in the file, as the CMA guidance for brands advises. If it happens repeatedly, the brand reconsiders the partnership.

Run the quality checklist for each campaign, with the disclosure points below added.

Common questions

Do micro-influencers need to use #ad?

Where the post is an ad, it must be clearly labelled. The CMA recommends Ad or Advert and says labels must be clear, prominent and easy to understand. Follower count makes no difference to the duty.

Is a gifted product always an ad?

The CMA treats any incentive as payment, including gifts of any products, so a post about a gift should be labelled even when the brand asks for nothing in return.

Who is responsible for disclosure, the brand or the influencer?

Both have duties. The CMA says brands should make sure paid-for endorsements are labelled and should check creators' posts, while creators must label content when they have been incentivised. Put the duty in the contract.

What are the penalties for hidden ads?

GOV.UK says breaking the unfair commercial practices rules can mean prosecution or a penalty of up to £300,000 or 10% of global turnover, whichever is higher.