Influencer accounting: ASA and CMA ad disclosure rules

What to take away

Who regulates UK influencer advertising: ASA, CMA and the CAP Code

Two bodies matter for a UK creator, and they do different jobs.

The Advertising Standards Authority writes and enforces the UK advertising codes covering influencer disclosure. The CAP Code sits inside that framework and applies to marketing communications, which includes a paid post on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.

The Competition and Markets Authority is the competition and consumer law regulator. Its guidance on online endorsements and consumer protection tells businesses and creators that a commercial relationship must be obvious before a consumer reads the whole caption.

The ASA can act on a single complaint. The CMA tends to act on patterns of misleading practice across a market. Neither one needs a court order to publish a ruling against your post.

HM Revenue & Customs is a third audience. It cares whether the payment, the gift or the affiliate commission was declared as income on your Self Assessment tax return. That is the accounting side of the same post.

If you want the tax treatment mapped onto the disclosure rules, our guide to creator tax advertising rules covers the overlap.

When a post becomes an ad: payment, gifts, affiliate links and own-brand

The test is control and payment, not whether money changed hands.

A post is an ad when you were paid to make it. It is also an ad when a brand gave you a product on condition you post about it, or when a commercial relationship exists that a viewer would not expect. Payment can be cash, a voucher, a hotel stay, a discount code or a commission.

Affiliate links are advertising. If you earn a commission when someone buys through your link, the link is a commercial message. A one-line note near the link is enough, provided it is visible before the click.

Own-brand products are different. Promoting your own merchandise or course is not a brand deal, but the CAP Code still applies to the claims you make about it. Say what it is and avoid promising results you cannot show.

Gifted items sit in the middle. If a brand sends you something with no conditions and you choose to post, that is usually not an ad. If the brand asked for coverage, or you agreed to post in exchange, it is.

One rule of thumb: if a viewer would feel misled to learn about the arrangement after reading your caption, disclose it.

How to label ads clearly: ad, advert and gifted wording

The ASA accepts a short list of labels. The safest are "Ad", "Advert" or "Advertising".

Place the label where it is seen without tapping. On Instagram that means the first two lines of the caption, or the built-in paid partnership tag plus a caption label. On TikTok, use the disclosure toggle and repeat it in the caption. On YouTube, the paid promotion checkbox plus a spoken line in the first 30 seconds.

"Gifted" on its own is not enough when the brand had control. Use "Ad" and, if you want to be generous, add "gifted" afterwards. "Thanks to [brand]" is not a label. "Collab" is not a label. A hashtag buried among twenty others is not a label.

Stories and Reels need the label on every frame that carries the promotion, not only the first. A viewer who starts halfway through should still see it.

Live shopping and Q&A sessions count. Say it out loud at the start and pin a comment with the label.

Keep a copy of the caption as published. If the ASA receives a complaint, the version on your screen today is the evidence. A written creator tax disclosure policy that covers both the label and the invoice saves time later.

CMA compliance guidance and consumer protection law

The CMA's interest is consumer protection, not taste or tone.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 make it a criminal offence to mislead consumers through commercial practices, including hidden advertising. The consumer protection rules on unfair trading in influencer marketing sit behind the CMA's work, and breaches can lead to enforcement action and, in serious cases, prosecution.

The CMA has published guidance for social media endorsements and has written to platforms and brands about hidden ads. It expects the commercial nature of a post to be clear before the consumer engages with the content, not in a disclaimer at the end.

There is no minimum follower count. A creator with a few thousand followers is covered in exactly the same way as one with a million.

Where the ASA rules on a specific post, the CMA looks at whether the market as a whole is behaving. That is why a brand can be investigated even when your individual post was labelled correctly.

If you sell your own digital products, the same rules cover your checkout page, your testimonials and your countdown timers. False urgency is a misleading practice.

How the ASA handles complaints and what its rulings turn on

The ASA publishes its decisions, and creators appear in them regularly. You can read the pattern in the ASA rulings showing enforcement against creators.

Recurring themes in published rulings include:

Rulings are published with the creator's name and the brand's name. They are indexed by search engines and stay online. A single upheld complaint can outrank your own profile for your own name.

Most cases end with an instruction not to repeat the claim or the omission. The reputational cost arrives before any financial one.

Sanctions, naming and the cost of getting disclosure wrong

The ASA has no power to fine a creator directly. Its sanctions are reputational and practical.

The ASA sanctions for non-compliant advertising include publishing the ruling, asking the platform or the brand to remove the ad, and placing paid search ads against the offending brand or creator name so that searches surface the ruling.

The CMA has stronger tools. It can accept undertakings and take court action, and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 lets it decide that consumer law has been breached and impose a penalty itself. For a sole trader creator, a court action is the expensive outcome, not the ruling.

Brands pass the risk down. A contract clause requiring you to comply with the CAP Code is standard, and so is an indemnity if your disclosure failure causes the brand loss. Read those clauses before signing.

There is a tax angle too. An undisclosed gift can still be taxable income, and an undeclared affiliate commission is undeclared income. Our explainer on creator tax rules and ethics sets out how HMRC treats both.

A disclosure checklist for every brand deal

Work through this before you publish, and again at the end of the campaign.

A Manchester-based skincare creator receives a £600 fee and a £40 serum from a brand, with a brief asking for two Reels and three stories. She labels both Reels "Ad" in the first line, uses the paid partnership tag, and adds "Ad" to each story frame.

She invoices £600 plus VAT if registered, and files the brief and screenshots in a campaign folder. If a complaint arrives, the folder answers it.

Your record keeping is the same discipline as your tax records. The creator tax UK regulations piece explains which rules come from statute and which from guidance, which helps when a brand's legal team asks.

Data protection duties when running creator campaigns

Disclosure is not the only legal duty in a brand deal. Personal data is the other.

If you collect email addresses for a giveaway, run a newsletter or share audience insights with a brand, you are processing personal data under the UK GDPR. The Information Commissioner's Office is the regulator, and it expects a lawful basis, a clear privacy notice and a way for people to opt out.

Audience data shared with brands should be aggregated. Sending a brand a list of follower handles or email addresses is a data transfer, and it needs a lawful basis and, usually, a contract clause.

Giveaway entrants must know what they are signing up to. A competition that quietly adds entrants to a marketing list is a problem for both the creator and the brand.

Keep data only as long as you need it. A campaign folder with screenshots is fine; a spreadsheet of entrant emails kept for years is not.

If you run a limited company through Companies House, the same duties apply, and the company is the data controller, not you personally.

Common questions

Do I have to label a post if I was only given free products?

Yes, if the brand expected coverage in return. If the product arrived unrequested and you post with no agreement, disclose the gift but you do not have to call it an ad.

Is "gifted" enough on its own?

The ASA has treated "gifted" as insufficient where the brand had control over the content. Use "Ad" and add "gifted" if you want to be transparent about the arrangement.

Can the ASA fine me?

No. The ASA's sanctions are publication of the ruling, removal requests and paid search ads. The CMA can take court action and pursue fines under consumer protection law.

Do affiliate links need a label?

Yes. If you earn commission, say so near the link, before the click. A short note is enough.

Does this apply if I have a small following?

Yes. There is no follower threshold. The CAP Code and consumer protection law apply to any commercial communication.

Do I still pay tax on a gifted product?

A gift received because of your business is usually taxable income at its market value. Record it and include it in your Self Assessment.