Digital Fairness Act: what the EU’s influencer rules mean for brands

The European Commission is due to unveil the Digital Fairness Act today, 11 November 2026, and draft documents seen by Agence France-Presse show it will require creators across the EU to label paid content as an “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration”, and will forbid brands from asking influencers to encourage children to buy products or to persuade their parents to. For brands running creator campaigns in Germany and Italy, it is the first EU-level law written for influencer marketing rather than applied to it; for UK brands, it lands three weeks after the ASA and CMA’s own fourth-edition guide, and the two regimes now point the same way on labels and the same way on who is liable. This piece sets out what the draft says, what is still open, and what changes in a creator brief that runs across the three markets.

SHORT ANSWER

• What it is: the Digital Fairness Act, a proposal to overhaul EU consumer protection rules, due to be presented by consumer protection commissioner Michael McGrath on 11 November, per AFP.
• What the draft says on creators: sponsored posts and videos must be labelled “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration”; brands may not ask influencers to encourage children to buy or to lobby their parents; “dark patterns” and “drip pricing” are banned.
• Why it was needed: an EU Parliament research briefing in December 2025 found influencer rules spread across consumer, audiovisual and digital law with unclear responsibilities for brands, and found 38 percent of creators used phrases such as “collaboration” or “thanks to the brand” instead of platform labels, per Net Influencer’s summary.
• What it is not yet: law. A proposal starts the legislative process; the final text, the penalties and the start date will come from Parliament and Council.

What does the Digital Fairness Act say about influencer marketing?

According to the draft documents reported by AFP via France 24 on 9 November, creators will have to label sponsored videos and posts as an “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration”. The same documents forbid brands from asking influencers to encourage children to buy products or to persuade their parents to buy them in commercial content. Beyond creators, the act bans “dark patterns”, interface features designed to steer users into a seller’s preferred choice, and “drip pricing”, where fees appear only at checkout, and requires users to see the full price of an online order before they pay, per the AFP report carried by Free Malaysia Today.

The Commission’s own position has been building since October 2023, when it and national consumer authorities swept social media for undisclosed endorsements and launched the Influencer Legal Hub, stating that creators in regular commercial activity are traders under EU consumer law, as the Commission’s announcement put it. That sweep fed the Digital Fairness fitness check that produced today’s proposal.

Why is the EU legislating now?

Because the existing patchwork was not working. Net Influencer’s summary of a December 2025 European Parliamentary Research Service briefing records that the EU has no single dedicated influencer law, that responsibilities across the value chain, including the brands whose products are promoted, remain unclear, and that compliance has been uneven: 38 percent of creators did not use platform-provided labels such as “paid partnership” and wrote “collaboration” or “thanks to the brand” instead. Industry is split on the remedy. The European Brands Association, AIM, has asked for an EU definition of “influencer” and shared liability across the advertising chain; the European Influencer Marketing Alliance prefers practical guidance and stronger enforcement to new legislation, per the same summary.

How does this compare with the UK’s new ASA guide?

Closely, and that is the useful news for anyone briefing across the Channel. The ASA and CMA’s fourth-edition Influencers’ Guide, published on 23 October, rests on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, under which the CMA can fine brands, agencies and creators directly; it names “Sponsored”, “Spon” and “Sp” as labels the ASA has ruled insufficient and recommends #Ad and its variants, as law firm Lewis Silkin summarises. The EU draft reaches for “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration”. The words differ; the principle is identical: a label that says what the content is, visible before the viewer engages, with responsibility shared by the brand. A brief that already meets the UK guide will meet the EU draft on labelling with a change of wording.

Where the EU goes further is children. The UK guide addresses minors through the CAP Code; the EU draft writes a specific prohibition on commercial content that pushes children to buy or to pressure parents. For toy, snack, gaming and family brands using creators in Germany or Italy, that is the clause to read first when the text is published.

What changes for brands in Germany and Italy?

Both markets already have national disclosure regimes, and the act will sit on top of them rather than replace them. Italy’s AGCOM code requires labels such as “PUBBLICITÀ” or #ADV among the first words of sponsored content, with the brand named, and runs a register of creators above 500,000 followers or 1 million monthly views; Germany’s Werbekennzeichnung rules apply to the paying brand as much as to the creator. What the act adds is a common EU vocabulary and, if AIM’s position survives the drafting, a definition of “influencer” and shared liability that national regulators can enforce consistently. The pricing provisions matter in both markets too: a creator post that discloses a discount but not the delivery fee, or a checkout that adds fees late, falls under the drip-pricing ban as well as the existing 30-day reference-price rule.

What should a cross-market creator brief contain now?

1. One label standard with three spellings. #Ad for the UK, “Pubblicità” or #ADV for Italy, “Werbung” or “Anzeige” for Germany, and “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration” ready for the EU text when it is final.
2. A children’s clause. No brief, in any market, that asks a creator to prompt a child to buy or to ask a parent; write the prohibition into the contract now rather than after the act passes.
3. Full-price discipline. Any price a creator quotes should be the full price the customer pays, delivery included, measured against the lowest price in the previous 30 days.
4. Shared liability in writing. Both the UK guide and the EU draft put the brand in the chain of responsibility; the contract should say who checks the label before posting and who answers a regulator.
5. Usage rights and fees that reflect the new regime. A labelled, genuine post is worth more as paid media than an unlabelled one is worth as reach. Our analysis of creator fees for 2027 covers the fee model, and our piece on Pinterest’s creator Pin reversal covers who may run a creator’s post as an ad.

For the agencies already running campaigns across the three markets under these rules, see our Top 10 influencer marketing agencies in the UK 2026, and for the questions to ask one about compliance before signing, our guide to choosing an influencer marketing agency in 2026.

What to watch next

The published text itself, which will show whether the label wording is fixed or illustrative and whether an EU definition of “influencer” made it in. The penalty regime, which the AFP reports do not describe. And the timetable: Parliament and Council will amend before adoption, so brands have time to adjust, but the children’s provision and the label rule are the two least likely to soften. This article will be updated when the Commission publishes the proposal.

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