We previously reported that the Sectoral Association DDMA introduced a certificate for influencers in April last year, in cooperation with the Dutch Association of Advertisers and the Dutch Advertising Code Foundation. If they have this certificate, influencers can show – after successfully completing an online course – that they are familiar with all rules around influencer marketing. Influencers who obtain this certificate will be registered in a public register and can announce, via text and a logo, that they are ‘Certified by influencerregels.com’.
In this blog we will discuss some interesting developments of last year in brief.
Numbers are rising
Since the influencer certificate was created in April 2024, numbers of the influencers who obtained the certificate have exceeded 2,000. In 2024, the number of influencers in the Netherlands was estimated at about 10,000. If this number is correct, 1/5 of the influencers now has an influencer certificate.
Besides, since the certificate was launched a great number of advertisers (Albert Heijn, ANWB, Bol, Coca-Cola Nederland, Heineken, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Kruidvat, L’Oréal, McDonald’s, Nestlé, TUI, Unilever, Vrumona and VTech) have joined the initiative. By joining, these advertisers state that they will only work with certified influencers.
More than 30 management and advertising agencies have meanwhile also joined the initiative. These agencies encourage the influencers they represent to obtain the certificate.
Moreover, the initiative is supported by platform giants TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.
First influencer fined by Media Authority
Last June, almost two years after the new rules on influencer marketing took effect, the Dutch Media Authority fined an influencer for the first time for breaching the influencer advertising rules. TikTokker Rhodé Kok was imposed a fine of €6,075 for advertising a cream and an online shop, among other things, without making it clear that these were advertisements. The fact that Kok powsted a hashtag #ad with her videos was not enough, according to the Media Authority, since this hashtag was only visible if users clicked on ‘more’. Kok first received a warning for this, but when the videos were not adjusted, the Media Authority imposed the fine. When setting the amount of the fine the Media Authority did take into account that Kok had obtained the ‘influencer certificate’ in the meantime, as a circumstance reducing the fine, so that the fine eventually ended up at €6,075.
Media Authority to abandon ‘followers criterion’ in enforcing influencer rules
The Media Authority has announced that in 2025 it wants to lower the threshold criteria for which influencers fall under the supervision of advertising regulations and have to register with the Media Authority. At present, one of these criteria is that an influencer has 500,000 followers. However, the Media Authority has noticed that there are growing risks for commercial influencing and protection of children in the group of influencers with less than 500,000 followers. Therefore, it wants to abandon this criterion, so that all influencers who comply with the other four criteria will be placed under its supervision and will therefore also have to register with the Authority.
This article was previously published on www.mediareport.nl.
