Influencer advertising rules in the UK: disclosure, ad labels and what gets you reported

Last verified 4 September 2026. In the ASA’s most recent monitoring sweep, 57% of influencer ads met the disclosure rules. Which means a third of them carried no disclosure at all. This is what the rules actually require, who enforces which part, and what happens when you ignore them.

The two regulators, and why the distinction matters

Two bodies police influencer marketing in the UK, and they apply different tests. Getting this wrong is the most common reason brands think they are compliant when they are not.

The ASA enforces the CAP Code. It has jurisdiction where a brand has paid the influencer in some form and had some degree of editorial control over the content. Both limbs are needed. That is the “controlled ad” test.

The CMA enforces consumer protection law, and control is irrelevant to it. If there is a commercial relationship and it is not disclosed, that is potentially unlawful whether or not the brand had any say in the post. Since 6 April 2025 the CMA has been able to enforce directly under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, imposing fines of up to 10% of global turnover without going to court first.

That power is being used. In its first year of direct enforcement, published on 17 April 2026, the CMA opened investigations into 14 businesses, ordered £760,000 in consumer refunds, imposed £4.7 million in fines and issued 157 advisory and warning letters.

What counts as a controlled ad

The joint ASA and CMA guide, An Influencer’s Guide to Making Clear that Ads are Ads, is now in its third edition, updated on 23 March 2023. It sets out both limbs plainly.

Payment is broader than money

Payment includes a fee, commission, a free loan of a product or service, a free product or service whether you asked for it or it arrived unsolicited, trips, hotel stays, hospitality, an ambassador retainer, or any other incentive. A gifted item you never requested still counts.

Control is broader than sign-off

• Specifying words, phrases, themes, key messages or a required hashtag.
• Specifying what must be in an image, a required action in a video, or a content type such as an unboxing.
• Requiring a set number of posts, on certain dates, or at particular times.
• Reserving the right to check or approve the content, or to ask for changes. The brand does not have to use that right. Having it is enough.

The ASA’s remit also extends beyond the two-limb test in four situations: when an influencer advertises their own products, services or events, when they promote something made in collaboration with a third party, when they run a competition, prize draw or giveaway, and when they post affiliate marketing.

Affiliate content is where most people are caught out. If a post carries a tracked link or a discount code that pays you per click-through or per sale, that post is an ad. If only some of the products in a piece of content are affiliate-linked, those parts are ads and must be labelled as such.

The rules being applied

Three CAP Code rules do nearly all of the work.

2.1 Marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such.

2.3 Marketing communications must not falsely claim or imply that the marketer is acting as a consumer or for purposes outside its trade, business, craft or profession; marketing communications must make clear their commercial intent, if that is not apparent from the context.

2.4 Marketers and publishers must make clear that advertorials are marketing communications; for example, by heading them “advertisement feature”.

CAP Code, Edition 12, Section 2

The test in 2.1 is whether a consumer can recognise the content as advertising without clicking or otherwise interacting with it. Influencer content sits alongside organic posts and is styled identically, so context almost never does the work on its own.

The labels that work, and the ones that do not

The ASA and CMA both recommend labels that name the thing directly. These are safe, with or without a hash: Ad, Advert, Advertising, Advertisement, Advertisement Feature.

The guidance advises staying away from the following, because they are open to interpretation or unfamiliar to consumers.

• Sponsorship, Sponsored
• Gifted
• Supported by, Funded by, In association with
• “Thanks to [brand] for making this possible”
• Simply @ mentioning or tagging the brand
• Abbreviations such as aff, affiliate, spon or sp

Placement is judged as strictly as wording. A label must be upfront, before people click or engage, prominent enough to be noticed, appropriate to the channel and legible on every device including mobile and in-app.

What fails: burying the label in a block of hashtags, putting it where it only appears after “see more”, requiring a click to view the full post, or making a video’s commercial nature apparent only by watching it. Put the disclosure at the very start of the caption, in the title, in the thumbnail, or on the image itself if that is all anyone sees first.

The non-compliant influencers list

The ASA’s most distinctive sanction in this area is publication. Its non-compliant social media influencers page names people who have repeatedly failed to disclose.

The process runs in stages. The CAP Compliance team first contacts an influencer who is routinely failing to label ads and asks for an assurance that clear, upfront labels will be used in future. Those who refuse to give that assurance, or who give it and then renege, are placed on the page and put into a period of enhanced monitoring with spot checks. The minimum listing is three months.

Continued non-compliance escalates. The ASA can run paid advertising campaigns highlighting the influencer’s non-compliance, work with platforms to have content removed, and refer the individual to Trading Standards for statutory action including possible fines.

As of today two names are listed: Arabella Chi (@arabellachi), added 9 February 2026, and Krissy Cela (@krissycela), added 15 July 2025. Twenty-six people have been listed and subsequently removed after satisfactorily changing their disclosure practice, which is the point of the mechanism.

The most recent enforcement

The ASA’s second influencer disclosure sweep, published on 9 May 2025, used the AI-driven Active Ad Monitoring system to analyse more than 50,000 pieces of content across 509 UK accounts and 390 individual influencers on Instagram and TikTok.

The result: 57% of ads were adequately disclosed, 9% used a label but an unclear one, and 34% carried no disclosure whatsoever. More than half of ads for fashion and travel products were undisclosed or poorly disclosed. There was little difference between platforms, at 55% for Instagram and 60% for TikTok, or between formats, with posts at 58%, reels at 56% and stories at 53%.

The clearest recent ruling is Guangzhoushi Yingyi Maoyi Youxiangongsi, trading as LANPN, of 27 May 2026. An Instagram post on Gemma Markland’s account, @themarklandhome, showed nutcracker cushions with the text “AMAZON FIND nutcracker cushions” and invited followers to comment “LINK” for details.

Markland said she had bought the cushions herself and posted organically. The ASA established she was using an affiliate link earning commission through her Amazon storefront. Consumers, it found, would understand the post as documenting her home furnishings without any financial incentive behind it. Platform-native disclosures appearing only after engagement were not enough. Upheld under rules 2.1 and 2.3.

Note who was named in that ruling: the brand, not the influencer. Responsibility sits with the influencer, the brand and any agency involved, and the ASA will pursue whichever it can reach.

What this means for advertisers

• Write the ad label into the contract, specify the exact word, and specify where it goes. Do not leave it to the creator.
• Retire “Sponsored” and “Gifted” from your briefs. Both are on the discouraged list.
• Treat gifting as paid. There is no unpaid seeding programme in the eyes of either regulator.
• Audit affiliate links and storefronts separately from paid partnerships. That is where the current rulings are.
• Do not rely on Instagram’s or TikTok’s built-in paid partnership tag as your only disclosure. The ASA has said it is insufficient when it only surfaces after engagement.
• Stories need the label in the first frame and on screen long enough to read.

Frequently asked questions

Is #ad enough?

The word is right. Whether it is enough depends on placement. It must appear before anyone has to click or scroll, and it must not be lost inside a run of other hashtags.

Do I need to label a gifted product I was not asked to post about?

Under consumer law, yes, because a free product is a payment and the commercial relationship must be disclosed. The ASA’s own remit additionally requires the brand to have had editorial control, but the CMA’s does not.

Do I have to label posts about my own products?

The content is advertising and the CAP Code applies. If it is genuinely clear you are talking about your own products, audiences can usually recognise that, so a separate label may not be needed. Competitions, prize draws and giveaways still need to be obvious as marketing.

What actually happens if I do not disclose?

A published ASA ruling naming you or the brand, potential listing on the non-compliant influencers page with three months of enhanced monitoring, platform takedowns, referral to Trading Standards, and CMA action under the DMCC Act carrying fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

Sources

• CAP Code (Edition 12), Section 2: Recognition of marketing communications
• ASA and CMA, “An Influencer’s Guide to Making Clear that Ads are Ads”, third edition
• ASA, “Influencer ad disclosure on social media: Instagram and TikTok report”, 9 May 2025
• ASA, Non-compliant social media influencers
• ASA ruling, Guangzhoushi Yingyi Maoyi Youxiangongsi t/a LANPN, 27 May 2026
• CMA, “Direct consumer enforcement: one year on”, 17 April 2026

For the wider framework, see our guide to UK advertising rules, and our running log of ASA rulings this month.