Fairness Commission rejects appeals on influencer decisions

The consumer protection had also filed "several new complaints", the SLK announced on Thursday. The two rejected appeals against tennis player Roger Federer and influencer Xenia Tchoumi, as well as the complaint against mountain biker Yolanda Neff, were about the obligation to label advertising in social media posts.

According to the report, Federer posted a professional promotional video showing, among other things, the logo of his current sponsoring partner. It was clear from the presentation that the tennis star was advertising for the brand owner, writes SLK.

In the case of Tchoumi's post, it also seemed clear that it was commercial communication, even though the jewelry presented was not labeled accordingly, according to the report. The fact that the influencer stated that she had no collaboration with the advertised brands was not relevant, as it is often part of the influencers' strategy to advertise brands only with a view to doing business with them in the future.

In Neff's case, the Fairness Commission did not make a decision because the mountain biker had accepted the complaint from the beginning.

Reference to current case law

However, judging a new case, as in the case of the influencer complaints, also shows that it takes a certain number of cases for a "consistent ruling practice to become established. In its decisions, the Fairness Commission also takes into account current case law abroad "in the sense of the multinational character of social media accounts.

Like the SLK principles, this does not include a general labeling obligation. The decisive factor is whether the commercial nature of a communication is clearly recognizable or not.

According to SLK, new scientific studies indicate that young followers are able to identify the commercial persuasive intentions of a post even without labeling due to the specific content design and definitely have a critical attitude towards influencer posts.

In Switzerland, any person has the authority and legitimacy to complain to the SLK about commercial communications that they believe are unfair.

On May 6, at the plenary session, three experts were approved and two newly elected to the Fairness Commission, according to the statement.

New experts for the Fairness Commission

On May 6, 2020, three experts were bid farewell and two newly elected. Stefan Szabo from the Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) replaces Emmanuel Meyer, who has supported the SLK as an IPI expert for eight years, as a specialist in the field of intellectual property law and Swissness. Also new is Roman Gertsch, COO & Co-Founder of the agency Kingfluencers.

On an interim basis, Andreas Häuptli, Managing Director of the Swiss Media Association, is putting himself at the service of fair advertising. Until a definitive replacement is found, he replaces Mirjam Teitler, who has served as expert for print media since 2016. Also stepping down is Lorenzo Cicco as expert for TV advertising; he will be replaced at a later date. (SDA/pd/hae)