Short answer
There is no single EU “influencer law”. A campaign may trigger several regimes at once, each aimed at a different actor or risk.
- National consumer law implementing the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) normally supplies the direct rule that an influencer must make a commercial relationship apparent. Payment can include gifts, free travel, affiliate commission, discounts or other benefits—not only cash.
- The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) applies additional audiovisual rules if an influencer's channel is itself an on-demand audiovisual media service under national law. It also requires video-sharing platforms to provide disclosure tools and take specified measures concerning commercial communications.
- The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires online platforms to label paid ads, identify the beneficiary and payer, and explain the main targeting parameters. It also requires a declaration tool for user content containing commercial communications and restricts profiling-based ads using sensitive data or aimed at minors.
- Regulation (EU) 2024/900 adds much more detailed rules where a message is political advertising. It has applied in full since 10 October 2025, including its targeting restrictions and the three-month pre-election rule for eligible sponsors.
Start with the influencer's commercial relationship
The UCPD applies where an influencer acts as a trader or on behalf of a trader in a business-to-consumer commercial practice. Article 7(2) treats it as a potentially misleading omission where a trader “fails to identify the commercial intent” when that intent is not already apparent and the omission is likely to affect a consumer's transactional decision. Annex I(11) always prohibits paid editorial promotion whose commercial nature is not made clear in the content, images or sounds.
The rule applies where a trader “fails to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice”. —
A brand endorsement should therefore be recognisable before or when the audience encounters it, not revealed only after clicking “more”, following an obscure hashtag, or reading a biography. The disclosure should identify the commercial nature in plain language appropriate to the audience and format. A platform's “paid partnership” tool can help, but does not excuse an unclear post.
Approved labels, enforcement, allocation of liability and sanctions come from Member State implementation and regulator practice. National rules may also cover health claims, alcohol, gambling, financial promotions, environmental claims and children. Cross-border campaigns therefore need country-by-country checks.
When the AVMSD reaches an influencer channel
Not every video account is an audiovisual media service. The AVMSD looks for a normally remunerated service whose principal purpose, or a dissociable section, supplies programmes to the public under the provider's editorial responsibility. Organisation, economic activity and control over selection and presentation are relevant. National regulators apply those criteria under domestic law.
If the channel qualifies as an on-demand audiovisual media service, its audiovisual commercial communications must be “readily recognisable as such”. Surreptitious and subliminal advertising are prohibited, and Article 9 adds subject-specific rules—for example for tobacco, prescription medicines, alcohol, discrimination, harmful conduct and the protection of minors. Member States may impose stricter or more detailed rules on media providers under their jurisdiction.
Audiovisual commercial communications must be “readily recognisable as such”. —
The platform has a different AVMSD role. A video-sharing platform generally lacks editorial responsibility for uploaded videos but organises them, including by automated means. Under Article 28b it must comply with Article 9 for advertising it markets, sells or arranges; take appropriate measures concerning other audiovisual commercial communications; clearly inform users when such communications are declared or known; and provide uploaders with a declaration function. These duties do not turn every uploader into a regulated broadcaster.
What the DSA adds on online platforms
DSA Article 26 applies when a platform presents an “advertisement”: a commercial or non-commercial message promoted for specific remuneration. In real time, the platform must identify it as an ad, the beneficiary, a different payer, and meaningful information about the main recipient-selection parameters and how to change them.
The DSA also requires platforms to let uploaders declare that their content contains commercial communications and then mark it clearly. That matters to influencers, but Article 26 is principally a platform duty. A brand paying an influencer while neither pays the platform for promotion may be a commercial communication without being a DSA “advertisement”; consumer-law disclosure duties can still apply.
Platforms may not present profiling-based advertisements using GDPR Article 9 special-category data. Platforms accessible to minors may not use profiling to present ads based on a recipient's personal data when they know with reasonable certainty that the recipient is a minor. Very large platforms and search engines must also keep a searchable ad repository for the display period and one year afterwards, including the ad, payer, beneficiary, dates, targeting or exclusion parameters and aggregated reach.
Political advertising has its own cumulative regime
Regulation 2024/900 covers paid, in-house or campaign messages by, for or on behalf of political actors unless purely private or commercial. It also covers messages both liable and designed to influence elections, referendums, voting behaviour, or EU, national, regional or local legislative or regulatory processes. Neutral official participation information and certain legally allocated candidate presentations are excluded.
A paid influencer delivering a candidate's, party's or campaign's message can therefore sit at the end of a political-advertising service chain. The sponsor is the person on whose request or behalf the ad is disseminated. Ordinary unpaid user expression is generally different: an online intermediary service provided without consideration for promoting the specific message is excluded from “political advertising service”. Facts matter, including third-party payment and benefits in kind.
Each political ad must carry information in a “clear, salient and unambiguous way”, including:
Each political advertisement must use a “clear, salient and unambiguous” presentation. —
- a statement that it is political advertising;
- the sponsor and any ultimate controller;
- the election, referendum, legislative or regulatory process, where applicable;
- whether targeting or ad-delivery techniques were used; and
- a directly accessible transparency notice.
The notice adds the payer, campaign period, aggregate amounts or benefits, source of funds, linked process, and repository and reporting links where applicable. Labels must remain when the ad is further disseminated. Implementing Regulation 2025/1410 prescribes medium-specific label templates and technical specifications. Implementing Regulation 2026/818 sets the repository's data, metadata, authentication and API standards, but its first functional date is announced separately. These duties supplement the DSA and consumer/media rules.
Targeting political ads is especially restricted
Since 10 October 2025, personal-data targeting or ad delivery for online political advertising is permitted only if the controller collected the data from the person, obtained separate explicit consent specifically for political advertising, and does not profile using GDPR special-category data. The controller must offer a person who refuses consent an equivalent way to use the online service without political advertising.
Targeting is also prohibited where the controller knows with reasonable certainty that a person is at least one year below voting age. Controllers must publish and retain a targeting policy, keep records, explain recipient groups, data categories and logic, conduct an annual public rights assessment, and provide an effective rights interface.
These are stricter rules than the DSA's general sensitive-data and minor protections. GDPR duties continue to apply independently, including transparency, lawful processing, data-subject rights and controller responsibility.
The pre-election sponsor rule in 2026
The Political Advertising Regulation's main provisions are already operative; they are not awaiting a future 2026 start date. During the final three months before an EU, national, regional or local election or referendum, services relating to it may be provided only to a sponsor—or a service provider for one—declaring that it is:
- an EU citizen;
- a permanently resident third-country national entitled to vote in that election or referendum; or
- an EU-established legal person not ultimately owned or controlled by an ineligible third-country person or entity.
Member States may impose stricter rules, including a longer restricted period. National campaign law may also govern content, silence periods, spending, donations, sponsor eligibility, broadcasting allocation and prohibited advertising. Regulation 2024/900 harmonises transparency and targeting; it does not erase those rules.
A campaign checklist
Before publication, record the sponsor, payer and intermediaries; classify the message; map controllers, data sources and targeting; assess minors and sensitive data; and identify national authorities.
For cross-border platform rules, jurisdiction cannot simply be assumed from audience location. In Google Ireland, C-376/22, the Court held that a destination Member State could not use the e-Commerce Directive derogation for general and abstract measures against a service category established elsewhere. In joined cases C-188/24 and C-190/24, the Court confirmed that this includes general criminal and public-policy rules, while measures against a given service may remain possible if Article 3's conditions are met. These cases make home-state control and the legal basis for national measures important.
Conclusion
An influencer disclosure is only the first layer. Consumer law asks whether the audience understands the commercial intent; the AVMSD may regulate an audiovisual service and its commercial communications; the DSA governs platform labelling, targeting transparency and repositories; and Regulation 2024/900 imposes a political-ad label, transparency file, sponsor controls and strict consent-based targeting rules. The safest campaign design classifies every message and actor before launch, then checks the national media, consumer and election rules in every targeted Member State.
Sources
This article provides general legal information, not advice for a specific matter. Laws, facts and procedural deadlines may change the result. Follow the linked primary sources and obtain local advice before acting.