FARFETCH
Content, media, and technology
ICPEN reports on sweep findings: online and AI influencers rarely disclose commercial content
On June 30, 2026, ICPEN reported on the results of its annual sweep on influencer marketing transparency, including AI-generated content and virtual influencers.
The sweep ran from March 23, 2026 to April 8, 2026 and involved 20 consumer protection enforcement agencies reviewing 228 influencers against transparency, fairness, and availability of information principles.
ICPEN found that 92% posted commercial content, but only one in five consistently disclosed it, and disclosures were often insufficiently prominent.
Among influencers using AI-generated or altered content, 69% did not disclose AI use, and although 65% of virtual influencers disclosed they were non-human, more than half made personal experience claims.
U.K.
Ofcom consultation on fraudulent advertising codes of practice
On July 10, 2026, Ofcom published a long-awaited consultation on draft Fraudulent Advertising Codes of Practice, setting out proposed measures for Category 1 (large user-to-user) and Category 2A (large search) service providers to comply with their statutory duties to protect U.K. users from fraudulent paid-for advertising, adopting a layered "safety by design" approach combining governance, account integrity, proactive detection, and content moderation measures.
Key proposals include:
- a publicly accessible advertising library with multi-criteria search, API access, and 12-month post-run retention
- advertiser identity verification and risk-based account checks
- mandatory FCA authorization verification for financial services advertisers
- annual fraud indicator assessments
- enhanced moderation, user reporting, trusted flagger channels, and account takeover protections
- strengthened governance requirements including annual board-level compliance reviews, a named senior accountable individual, independent internal assurance, and documented employee training.
The consultation closes on October 2, 2026, with final Codes expected by mid-2027.
EU
European Commission publishes guidelines on transparency obligations for certain AI systems
On July 20, 2026, the European Commission published guidelines to help providers and deployers comply with the AI Act transparency obligations under Article 50, which apply from August 2, 2026.
The guidelines clarify which providers and deployers are in scope for transparency requirements for interactive AI systems and for the marking and labeling of AI-generated or AI-altered content, with the stated aim of reducing deception and manipulation risks.
Under the AI Act, providers must design AI systems to inform users when they are directly interacting with AI and must add machine-readable marks to enable detection of AI-generated or manipulated content.
Deployers must inform people when they are exposed to deepfakes, to AI-generated content on matters of public interest without human review or editorial control, and to emotion recognition or biometric categorization systems.
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