Celebrity chef Donal Skehan has been issued with a compliance notice by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) over his failure to properly label a post on his Instagram account as a paid promotion.
The notice was issued on 28 July after an inspection of Mr Skehan's Instagram account by the CCPC, which found "a failure to use the appropriate labels to disclose the commercial nature of the content published".
The issue relates to a post involving Wind Shore Goods, which sells a range of products including premium olive oils and kitchen pantry items.
The compliance notice states that "in all future instances" Mr Skehan must make it clear "where a trader has paid for the promotion of a product or service" in one of his social media posts.
This comes as the CCPC has signed a data-sharing agreement with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which will enable the ASA to share information it receives through its online reporting portal while remaining in-line with data protection laws.
The move will give the CCPC greater access to reports from the public of potential breaches of the law.
Under consumer protection law, social media influencers must not mislead consumers through unfair practices such as hidden or mislabelled advertising.
This means they must clearly label posts of a commercial nature, however, a social media post may still breach consumer protection law even if it is properly labelled - if the content is false or misleading.
