Influencer & Affiliate Marketing Compliance Check

Any UK business that pays, gifts products to, or has a commercial relationship with an influencer, affiliate, or content creator to promote it must ensure that relationship is clearly disclosed. The Advertising Standards Authority’s CAP Code requires marketing communications to be obviously identifiable as advertising — a #ad, “Paid partnership”, or clear upfront label is expected wherever there is payment, a gifted product, or any other reciprocal arrangement, not just cash deals. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has direct enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 to investigate and fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover for breaches of consumer protection law, including misleading omissions such as hidden advertising and undisclosed affiliate links — and it is the brand paying for the promotion, not just the influencer, that can be held responsible.

This affects far more businesses than those running big influencer campaigns: any company using affiliate links, referral schemes, gifted-product reviews, or “ambassador” programmes is in scope, as is anyone running paid social media promotions through smaller creators. The ASA and CMA have both taken action against brands — not just individual influencers — for failing to ensure their marketing partners disclosed commercial relationships clearly. Alongside advertising disclosure, tracking clicks and conversions through affiliate links also engages PECR and UK GDPR rules on cookies and tracking technologies, so a compliant programme needs both clear ad labelling and a lawful tracking setup.

Use this free tool to check whether your influencer, affiliate, and gifted-product marketing meets ASA CAP Code disclosure rules and CMA consumer protection requirements, with a prioritised action plan.