For influencers
A post made by an influencer that introduces or promotes the product, brand, service or event covered by the post in order to increase its popularity and further increase its sales is also considered advertising.
When making a promotional post on social media, it’s advisable to clearly state at the beginning of the post that it is an advertisement. You can mark your post as ‘paid partnership’ or use the hashtag #promotion to highlight that it’s advertising.
Advertising of health services
Advertising of health services is prohibited under § 22 of the Advertising Act. Health services and health care providers are deemed to be the same as within the meaning of the Health Services Organisation Act and artificial insemination is deemed to be the same as within the meaning of the Artificial Insemination and Embryo Protection Act. However, there are certain exceptions for advertising of health services, i.e. in certain cases it’s not regarded as advertising of a health service.
- information on a health care provider’s name, hours of operation, place of business and specialty, and a healthcare professional’s name, specialty, academic degree and contact details, and the list of health care services provided;
- promotion by a healthcare provider of its work in the press.
All of these points also apply to the promotional messages posted by influencers. The name of the provider (company) may be used when promoting a health service and the services offered may be listed. You can also include the company’s contact details (e.g. a link to the company’s Instagram account) and a reference to the place of business.
However, it should always be kept in mind that the burden of proving the truthfulness of any advertising statements lies with the advertiser, the person who ordered the advertisement or the person who prepared the advertisement, respectively. Always coordinate the content of an advertisement with an expert from the relevant authority.
Advertising of beauty clinics
Before you start the cooperation, make sure you know who the service provider is – are they medically qualified? Does the procedure require medical education to perform this procedure or is respective training sufficient?
Find out what the possible side effects (short term, long term) of the procedure are and for whom the service is contraindicated.
It’s not possible for an influencer to consult their followers or determine the cause of the problem. If possible, any additional questions should be forwarded directly to the provider so that they can be answered directly and, if necessary, the person can be invited for a pre-procedure consultation.
Advertising of food supplements
Advertising must also not provide inaccurate information or suggest that the information presented has a scientific basis if it actually has not (clauses 3 (4) 11) and 14) of the Advertising Act).
Advertising must also not claim or suggest that the goods or services have special features if such features are characteristic to all similar goods or services of the same type (clause 3 (4) 16) of the Advertising Act).
Advertising must not refer to properties of the goods or services which cure, treat, mitigate or prevent diseases, malfunctioning or malformations, except in the cases provided by law (clause 3 (4) 17) of the Advertising Act). This clause is intended to ensure that the consumer is adequately informed of the specific characteristics of the goods or services. The prohibition concerns, for example, the advertising of food products and various health products/food supplements which, in the interest of consumer protection, must not be linked to the prevention, alleviation or treatment of a disease.