Paris (AFP)
Influencer Nabilla Benattia-Vergara agreed to pay a fine of 20,000 euros after being pinned by the Fraud Repression for promoting stock services on Snapchat in 2018 without mentioning that she was paid for it.
In a "story" on the social network, the reality TV star highlighted the free service offered by a stock exchange site and the prospects of substantial earnings, which the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and repression of fraud (DGCCRF) assimilated to "deceptive commercial practices".
"Influencers must inform their community when they are paid to promote products", reacted on Twitter the Minister of the Economy Bruno le Maire who also called to report to the DGCCRF "misleading behavior" and "advertisements disguised ".
"Failure to indicate the advertising nature of its publication (by a logo or an oral or written mention for example) constitutes a deceptive commercial practice against its subscribers who may mistakenly believe that the influencer 's promotion results of a positive disinterested personal experience ", underlines the DGCCRF in a press release published Wednesday.
The transactional fine, which takes into account the profit drawn from this operation, was "proposed and accepted" by Ms. Benattia-Vergara with the agreement of the Paris prosecutor, following investigations carried out by the national service of DGCCRF surveys.
The Directorate, which reports to the Ministry of the Economy, underlines that other investigations are underway in this area while more and more brands are seeking influencers on social networks to promote their products or of their services.
"The publications of influencers on social networks are (...) likely to have a significant impact on the economic behavior of the people who follow them and should therefore not deceive consumers", insists the DGCCRF in its press release.
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