Fashion brand Revolve has been hit with a $50 million class action lawsuit proposal alleging it has not fairly disclosed commercial partnerships with influencers.
The complaint was filed in California and the lead plaintiff, a customer named Ligia Negreanu, says she would not have brought the retailer’s products at the prices she paid if she had known she was being advertised to. Revolve’s affiliate partners, along with three influencers, were listed as co-defendants.
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Although this is an American lawsuit, the old saying that when the US sneezes, the UK catches the flu is true. It is entirely plausible UK brands could face the same action in years to come if they fail to disclose influencer advertising, make this a good time for a refresh on what the British regulator expects of creators and brands.
An overview of UK influencer regulations
The regulator for influencer marketing in the UK is the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which first released guidelines detailing its expectations in 2018. Updates were published in 2020 and 2023, and these are the influencer activations it believes should be labelled as advertising:
- Content from paid partnerships
- Content featuring gifted products
- Content featuring loaned products
- Content featuring gifted services
- Content from ambassadorships
- Content to drive affiliate income
- Content from brand trips
- Content from gifted holidays
- Promotion of discount codes
- Promotion of businesses when the creator is the owner or shareholder
- Promotion of businesses when the owner is a friend or family member of the creator
The ASA recognises five terms as being clear labels that adequately communicate to consumers they are being advertised to on influencer channels. These are:
- Ad
- Advert
- Advertisement
- Advertising
- Advertising feature.
The regulator does not recognise more nuanced but softer terms such as “gifted” and “hosted stay”. In addition, using the “paid partnership” header on Instagram alone is not enough – captions must begin with one of the above terms.
Other points to remember in 2025:
- Stories promoting adverts which are permanent content on influencer feeds must also be signposted with one of the correct ad labels.
- Ambassador influencers must include this information in every post that features the brands they work with. Listing this in “bio” text is not sufficient.
- Influencers advertising products which are only appropriate for specific age groups should flag this in their content.
By Sara McCorquodale, CEO and founder of CORQ. For commentary on the Revolve case, see Sara’s TikTok.
