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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is ramping up its regulatory scrutiny of social media influencers, popularly known as “finfluencers”, who use their platforms to promote financial products. In a significant development, the FCA has called in 20 individuals for interviews under caution. In conjunction with these interviews, the FCA issued 38 alerts targeting social media accounts managed by finfluencers suspected of promoting financial products unlawfully. These recent actions form part of the FCA’s ongoing strategy to curb misleading financial promotions, particularly...

On 7 October 2024, the Samenwerkingsplatform Digitale Toezichthouders (Dutch Digital Supervisory Cooperation Platform – SDT), which is comprised of four major Dutch regulatory authorities, published a significant recommendation that additional measures are needed to protect children and young people from social media influencer marketing. The SDT is an important regulatory cooperation platform established in 2022 by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, the Dutch Data Protection Authority, and the Dutch Media Authority...

On 24 September 2024, signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation published reports detailing their actions to combat the spread of disinformation online, with a particular focus on the European Parliament elections held in June 2024. The Code of Practice on Disinformation was first adopted in 2018 by various industry players, including online platforms, as a self-regulatory standard to tackle online disinformation in the EU; the Code was revised in 2022, and currently has 34 signatories (IRIS 2021-6/4). The Code of Practice contains 44 commitments and 128 specific measures, covering...

In a recent decision of the Национална агенция за приходите (the National Revenue Agency – NRA), the regulatory body provided clarifications on the interpretation of the latest amendments to the Bulgarian Закона за хазарта (Gambling Act) concerning the ban of gambling advertising (see IRIS 2024-6:1/18). Historically, the origins of these legislative changes date back to August 2022, when a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Съвет за електронни медии (Council for Electronic Media – CEM) and the NRA. This collaboration stemmed from growing concerns over aggressive gambling...

On 2 August 2024, the Amsterdam District Court (Rechtbank Amsterdam) delivered a significant judgment on YouTube’s suspension of an online news outlet from YouTube’s monetisation programme, over the channel’s “misleading content”, including on the climate crisis. Notably, the Court rejected the news outlet’s claim that there had been a violation of its right to freedom of expression, and said YouTube had the freedom to create an “advertising-friendly environment”, where certain channels are deemed “unsuitable for advertising” over misleading...