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Influencers like to film product tips from their own four walls (symbolic image)

Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa

Influencers have long since become important advertising media for a wide variety of products and reach hundreds of thousands on social networks such as TikTok or Instagram.

But it often happens that individual creators advertise controversial products or share misleading posts.

Against this background, the Greens in the Bundestag are now calling for a Europe-wide advertising ban for influencers on financial products, medical products, gambling and unhealthy foods.

This is what it says in a position paper from the parliamentary group, which the “Handelsblatt” reports on.

“Influencer marketing must be regulated more strictly,” says the ten-point paper.

The regulation should apply across Europe and, according to the Greens' ideas, become part of the so-called European Consumer Agenda 2025 to 2030.

The Greens are concerned with better protecting consumers from dubious practices online.

For this purpose, “harmonization of the different regulations in the EU internal market makes sense,” said the chairwoman of the Bundestag’s digital committee, Tabea Rößner, to the “Handelsblatt”.

The stricter regulations for influencer marketing could therefore be based on the European Digital Services Act (DSA).

Fears of influencers influencing children

Rößner referred to studies that showed that children and young people in particular are very directly influenced by advertising on the Internet.

"They want to eat and drink what their role models consume online, and these are sometimes unhealthy, particularly sugary foods or junk food," she told the newspaper.

“But adults can also be tempted by influencers, for example to buy risky financial products.” Many who fall into the trap of questionable recommendations would be harmed.

The Federal Association of Influencer Marketing welcomed the initiative.

The industry has “for some time been committed to a uniform approach at the European level in order to best protect the interests of both consumers and those of economic actors,” said association board member Jeanette Okwu to the “Handelsblatt”.

hpp/AFP