The government of Spain approved the Influencers Law with the aim of regulating the activity of content creators on social networks and protecting consumers from covert or harmful advertising. This regulation will apply to all content creators who have annual income of more than 300,000 euros, or have more than one million followers on any social network.

As the Official State Gazette points out, the Influencers Law was born with the objective of adopting an updated legal framework in accordance with the evolution of the audiovisual market, the protection of users and competition "with the same rules of the game" between actors competing for the same audience.

One of the great challenges of the regulations was the definition of influencers, which the Law has presented based on three axes: the income generated, the type of activity on social networks and the number of followers. In this way, they are considered "influencers", they are those who have an annual income of 300,000 euros per year thanks to their audiovisual activity, those who exceed one million followers on a single platform, or two million followers in their total activity. on networks, or who have published regularly, that is, 24 or more videos a year. These will have to register in the next two months in the State Registry of Audiovisual Providers as "users of special relevance."
The Influencers Law will regulate the activity of content creators

In terms of advertising, this regulation seeks to promote good advertising practices, since the content of influencers on social networks has a high impact on the audience that views them. Through this law, influencers will be obliged to comply with regulations regarding the protection of minors and audiovisual commercial communications.

Some of the obligations regarding the identification of advertising content are: explicitly labeling all advertising content to differentiate it from organic content or prohibiting advertising of harmful products, such as tobacco, alcohol or gambling and betting aimed at minors. old.
The need for regulations that cover more profiles

Pelayo Santos, influence marketing expert and CEO of Cuástica La agency, expresses in statements to MarketingDirecto.com that this regulation is exclusive, since, although in Spain there are more than 12,000 professional influencers with more than 100,000 followers according to data from 2btube, but only those with more than 1 million followers and annual income greater than 300,000 euros are subject to regulation. "This leaves out many profiles with great capacity for influence, which prevents the professionalization of the sector and keeps it in an anarchic state."

In this sense, Santos advocates the need for regulation to include all profiles with more than 1,000 followers on any social network, regardless of their income, to achieve true professionalization. He highlights the importance of all actors in the influence ecosystem, from agencies to brands and platforms, working together to this end. Furthermore, he points out that the law does not adequately address important issues such as the advertising of unhealthy foods, alcohol brands or the care of minors on social networks. The professional thus points out his concern about the role of social networks, which can circumvent legal restrictions through algorithms and promotions, exposing users to inappropriate content.

Ultimately, Santos believes that current legislation can quickly become obsolete due to rapid changes in the digital environment, and that it needs to be better adapted to the reality of the market and social networks to avoid it being simply a "temporary patch." .

https://www.marketingdirecto.com/marketing-general/publicidad/todo-sobre-la-ley-de-influencers-un-parche-temporal-o-una-medida-duradera