域外动态||红人营销（Influencer Marketing）:加拿大欺骗性营销监管的前沿领域

In recent years, advertisers have increasingly established commercial relationships with online personalities or "influencers", who market their products through various digital platforms and social media. The prevalence of "influencer marketing" has become an emerging frontier for the regulation of deceptive marketing in Canada and abroad.

近年来，广告商越来越多地与网络名人或“红人”建立商业关系，这些人通过各种数字平台和社交媒体营销产品。盛行的“红人营销”（Influencer Marketing，又称影响者营销）已成为加拿大对欺骗性营销进行规制的一个新兴领域。

Digital Marketing in Canada

加拿大的数字营销

In Canada, issues regarding misleading representations and deceptive marketing are covered under the Competition Act. If a representation may influence a consumer to buy or use the product or service advertised, it is considered material under the Act. While the Competition Act does not include any provision that expressly references digital marketing, the Competition Bureau has explicitly stated that its jurisdiction includes the regulation of influencer marketing.

在加拿大，《竞争法》涵盖了有关误导性陈述和欺骗性营销的问题。如果一项陈述可能影响消费者购买或使用该广告中的产品或服务，则该陈述被视为法律规定的实质性陈述。虽然《竞争法》没有任何明确提及数字营销的条款，但竞争局已明确表示其管辖范围包括对红人营销的监管。

The standard for what is considered "deceptive marketing" may be drawn from Ad Standard's Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. The Code specifically prohibits deceptive testimonials and endorsements and includes an obligation for advertisers to disclose any "material connection" between the influencer or person making the representation and the entity that makes the product or service available to the influencer or person making the representation.

被视为“欺骗性营销”的标准可能来自加拿大广告标准协会（Ad Standard）《加拿大广告标淮守则》（Canadian Code of Advertising Standards，）。《广告标准守则》明确禁止欺骗性认可和推荐，并规定广告商有义务披露红人或作出陈述的人与为其提供产品或服务的实体之间的任何“实质性联系”。

The increasing focus of regulatory authorities on influencer marketing has been reflected by an increase in the frequency of action taken by regulatory authorities concerning influencers marketing both in Canada and abroad.

红人营销受到监管机构越来越多的关注，这直接体现于加拿大竞争局对加拿大国内外红人采取行动频率的增加。

Is it a #ad?

推文有带#ad标签吗？

In Canada, most litigation has been undertaken by complaints made to Ad Standards. In 2017, a UK blogger promoted Ottawa as an attractive travel destination in a Twitter posting and was found by Ad Standards as "disguised advertising" since the blogger failed to disclose that the tweet was sponsored. While the tweet was intentionally aimed at a UK audience, Ad Standards found the tweet to be applicable to Canadian standards since it was accessible to Canadians and the use of "#Canada" and "#Ottawa" highlighted matters of interest specific to Canadians.

在加拿大，大多数诉讼都是通过向广告标准协会的投诉而发起的。2017年，一位英国博主在推特上宣传渥太华是一个有吸引力的旅游目的地，因为他没有透露这条推特是被赞助的，这条推特被广告标准协会认为是“变相广告”。虽然这条推特的目标受众是英国人，但广告标准协会认为加拿大广告标注能适用于这条推特，因为加拿大人可以获取这条信息，而“#Canada”和“#Ottawa”这两个标签的突出使用则使得加拿大人更加感兴趣。

In 2018, a Canadian influencer narrowly avoided a finding by Ad Standards that her Instagram post, which described her experience with a facial product, was "disguised advertising". Prior to adjudication of the complaint, the advertiser, a cosmetic company, rectified the post by amending it to include "#ad". The influencer and advertiser were able to both avoid repercussions and were not identified in the complaint. This was similarly reflected in an Australian case regarding an Instagram post promoting a vehicle brand, whereby the Advertising Standards Bureau of Australia noted that the use of "#ad" would be sufficient to distinguish the post as an advertisement.

2018年，一位加拿大红人勉强避免了广告标准协会对其进行的一项调查，她的Instagram帖子描述了她对某面部产品的体验，这是“变相广告”。在对投诉进行裁定之前，广告商（一家化妆品公司）通过加入“#ad”标签的形式修改了这个帖子。红人和广告商因此而没有受到进一步的处罚，避免了更严重的影响。澳大利亚的一个案例也反映了这一点，该案例涉及Instagram上一篇推广汽车品牌的帖子，澳大利亚广告标准局(Advertising Standards Bureau of Australia)指出，使用“#ad”标签就足以将正常分享内容与广告区分开来。

While legal concerns pertaining to "influencer marketing" have largely been kept to relatively small regulatory complaints, there are civil cases emerging, particularly in the US. For example, in 2018, the boxer Floyd Mayweather and musician DJ Khaled were both named in a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit brought by US investors who lost money investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency venture. While the celebrity influencers were later dismissed from the lawsuit, the case raised important questions regarding "influencer marketing" since both celebrities promoted the brand without disclosing that they were compensated for their posts.

虽然有关“红人营销”的法律问题主要限于影响相对较小的监管投诉，但也有一些民事案件正在出现，特别是在美国。例如，2018年，拳击手Floyd Mayweather和音乐家DJ Khaled都卷入了一起标的数百万美元的集体诉讼中。这些美国投资者因欺诈性的加密货币风险投资而遭受了巨额损失。虽然这些名流红人后来被免于起诉，但该案件引发了关于“红人营销”的重要问题，因为这两位红人都对这家企业进行了宣传，但并没有披露他们的推文是有偿的。

Guidance from Canadian Regulators

加拿大监管机构的指引

In reflecting on the increasing regulation of "influencer marketing", the Competition Bureau has stated that the broad consensus among consumer protection agencies around the world is the importance of clearly and effectively disclosing material connections between influencers and advertisers.

在对“红人营销”日益加强监管的同时，加拿大竞争局指出，关于明确且有效地披露红人和广告商之间实质性联系的重要性，全球消费者保护机构已经达成广泛共识。

Canadian authorities are providing guidance to influencers and brands to assist them in minimizing risk of liability associated with "influencer marketing". Ad Standards has published the Influence Marketing Disclosure Guidelines, which serves as a guide to assist influencers and brands in complying with disclosure requirements. The Guidelines provide practical compliance advice, including the "dos" and "dont's" of disclosure. In addition, the Competition Bureau has recently published the Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest, which includes disclosure checklists for influencers and brands. There is no doubt, with the increasing breadth of social media and "influencer marketing", that these guidelines will serve as a helpful resource to influencers and brands.

加拿大竞争局正在为红人和品牌方提供指导，以帮助他们将与“红人营销”相关的责任风险降至最低。加拿大广告标准协会发布了《影响力营销披露指南》（Influence Marketing Disclosure Guidelines,），作为帮助红人和品牌方遵守披露要求的指引。指南提供了切实可行的合规建议，包括涉及披露的“必做事项”和“禁止事项”。此外，加拿大竞争局最近发布了三卷《欺骗性营销实践摘要》，其中包括针对红人和品牌方的披露清单。毫无疑问，随着社交媒体和“红人营销”的日益扩张，这些指南将成为红人和品牌方的有用资源。