Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding are among the celebrities who have agreed to declare if they’re getting paid for a social media ad.
A list of 16 famous names are going to be changing the way they promote things online after officials at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned they could be breaking consumer laws when they post about products to their millions of followers.
As well as the two singers, models Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Iskra Lawrence and fashion darling Alexa Chung have pledged to be more clear with their uploads.
The CMA say online endorsements can mislead fans and social media influencers who ignore the rules could be taken to court.
British TV stars Michelle Keegan, Mario Falcone, Binky Felstead, Holly Hagan, Milly Macintosh, Megan McKenna, Chloe Sims and Louise Thompson have also added their names to the initiative, with YouTubers Zoella, Jim Chapman and Dina Torkia completing the list.
Letters have also been sent out to other famous names.
“Influencers can have a huge impact on what their fans decide to buy. People could, quite rightly, feel misled if what they thought was a recommendation from someone they admired turns out to be a marketing ploy,” commented Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA. “You should be able to tell as soon as you look at a post if there is some form of payment or reward involved, so you can decide whether something is really worth spending your hard-earned money on.”
