Filenews 27 December 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Evidence from influencers' social media posts compiled by consumer groups across Europe confirms the widespread hidden advertising and appeal to emotions to shape consumer preferences and behaviour, especially among younger people.
The European Consumer Organization BEUC and its members are calling on the EU to urgently curb influencer marketing. The EU wants to prevent influencers from promoting unhealthy foods to protect the health of new generations. This is particularly worrying at a time when one in three children in Europe lives with overweight or obesity, reports the European Consumer Federation BEUC. Between March and September 2025, 14 BEUC consumer organizations from 12 countries tracked around 650 influencer posts and videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. Even though influencer marketing is applied to almost all areas, this collection of facts focused on food and fast fashion, which are dangerous areas for consumers. Risks include longer periods of screen use, excessive consumption of fabrics that harms the planet, and encouragement to consume unhealthy foods and drinks.
The survey showed that 67% of posts and publications in the food industry did not disclose whether they work with brands. The use of hidden advertisements and emotional manipulation techniques that shape the preferences and behaviours of consumers, especially young people and minors. The rapid development of advertising, through influencer marketing, on social media in recent years with a negative effect on children and teenagers, making it quite difficult to resist when it comes to either buying cheap fast-fashion clothes or discount codes for buying carbonated drinks. Reckless use of new creative techniques, which focus particularly on the game of manipulating the senses and emotions, in order to create bonds with consumers and promote products and services through abusive and unfair practices.
What the Organization is asking for
• Ban influencer marketing for certain products that pose risks to consumers (e.g. unhealthy food for children, over-indebtedness, etc.) in the upcoming Digital Justice Act.
• Definition of "influencer marketing" in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
• Transparency: establish a harmonised EU standard on influencer disclosure practices with detailed rules.
• Introducing the hypothesis that a person qualifies as an influencer if they frequently promote products/services to consumers.
• Establishing joint responsibility between influencers, their agencies and their brands in case of violation of consumer law.
Like a siren call
"Influencer marketing is like a siren call. It is simply very difficult for our children and teenagers to resist it. Whether it's "shopping" for cheap fast fashion clothing or discount codes for buying carbonated drinks, no one with a social media account can escape influencer marketing. Our data from across Europe shows that creative techniques are endless, from playing with people's emotions, games and challenges to sharing temporary content that fuels the 'fear of missing something'. Paid promotion is very often cryptic, if it is mentioned at all, so it's time for transparency," says Agustín Reyna, director general of BEUC. "The current rules for dealing with influencer marketing are not effective. The EU must coordinate and establish clear rules if we want to protect consumers, especially small ones. Consumer groups have repeatedly shown that industry self-regulation does not protect children from unhealthy food marketing. The responsibility should not only lie with influencers, but also with the brands that hire them and the platforms that offer them an opportunity," he concludes.
