Overview of the Basic Principles of Fair Advertising Practices

At the 26th session of the Advertising Coordinating Council under the ICAP the Basic Principles of Fair Practices for Bloggers in Advertising in the CIS countries (hereinafter referred to as the “Basic Principles”) were introduced. Basic Principles is an act for self-regulation. The main purpose of Basic Principles is to assist bloggers from CIS countries in complying with advertising legislation.

Definitions

Basic Principles introduce new definitions that may be used for assessment of risks of violation of advertising legislation (given that the initiative to prepare Basic Principles was supported by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia):

1. Blogger – is a person who posts in his personal or used blog regularly updated content.

2. Blog – is a channel, account, page/community in a social network, personal page on a website, network source, online diary for regular publication on the “Internet” of textual and/or image content or other type of content, created, including with the use of AI technology in order to attract the target audience.

3. Content – is an information in text, graphic, text-graphic, audio, visual, audiovisual format, both created by the Blogger and by third parties on the basis of contracts or other agreements, posted by the Blogger in his personal or used blog, in any available to the public form.

Identification of advertising on the Internet

Basic Principles remind of the necessity of compliance with advertising labeling requirements¹. Also, Basic Principles contain recommendation indicating in an available way the nature of the relationship with a person who has an interest in posting the content.

• For instance, “I recommend my father's brand to you” or “as a blogger, I don't know how good this product is, but my best friend makes it, so I trust him”.

Principles of respect for honest and fair communication

1. The necessity to comply with general advertising requirements².

2. Prohibiting unauthorized copying or imitation of advertising messages³.

3. In case of posting false information in the content, the blogger is recommended to delete it by his own initiative.

Principles of respect for good public practices

Advertising content shall:

1. Be published with respect for copyright and related rights;

2. Provide information in a clear and understandable way for children, due to their natural trustworthiness and lack of experience;

3. To contain information on prices, taking into account all the actions that the buyer must perform to take advantage of the offered discounts/bonuses;

4. Comply with the previously published by Federal Antimonopoly Service recommendations to prevent greenwashing.

It is prohibited in advertising content to:

1. Appeal to superstition to influence consumers;

2. Disseminate personal data without its owners’ consent⁴.

It is not recommended in advertising content to:

1. Advise the use of pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements if blogger does not have pharmaceutical or medical degrees;

2. Advise on financial services without blogger’s financial or legal proficiency (confirmed by corresponding degrees);

Aims of Basic Principles' publication

These and other provisions of Basic Principles repeat certain rules of the effective legislation. But they also contain some new recommendations and definitions. In our opinion, the novelties from this Basic Principles can be taken into account by state controlling bodies in judging the fairness and the trustworthiness of advertising, and may be used by bloggers as self-control guidelines.

The aim of the publication is to guide the activities of bloggers according to the principles of legality, truth, fairness, social responsibility and non-discrimination.