Hiding personal experience to advertise products is a violation of the law
(Dan Tri) - According to lawyers, the act of advertising "masquerading" as product reviews lacks transparency and directly violates consumers' right to know and choose.
"Psychological trap" is called personal experience
The rise of social media has created a new generation of influencers. With just a short video on TikTok or a post on Facebook, KOLs and KOCs can influence the shopping decisions of thousands of people.
However, this leads to a situation where many product promotional content is presented in the form of personal experiences without publicly disclosing sponsorship elements.
Talking to Dan Tri reporters, lawyer Nguyen Van Duy, Director of Hoang Duy and Associates Law Firm, said that from a legal perspective, the act of advertising without public sponsorship directly violates the two most basic and important rights of consumers.
Within the scope of the 2023 Consumer Rights Protection Law, it is the right to be informed and the right to freely choose.
According to Mr. Duy, current law prohibits business organizations and individuals from concealing sponsorship of influencers in product promotion activities.
"When KOL or KOC receive money to introduce products but appear as a normal user sharing personal experiences, they take away the public's right to know the truth," said lawyer Duy.
The commercial nature of the message is thus hidden under the guise of objective advice.
Not stopping at falsifying information, this behavior also has a direct impact on consumers' right to choose.
Attorney Duy affirmed that every shopping decision is formed based on the information consumers receive.
When advertising is disguised as a personal experience, consumers' information reception and purchasing decision-making processes can be influenced (Graphic: AI).
But when the nature of information is changed from advertising to personal experience, the decision-making process is also affected.
"Consumers choose products not because of their real needs or the quality of the goods themselves, but because they are influenced by a lack of transparency in the media scenario," Mr. Duy said.
Lawyers say disguised advertising is essentially a sophisticatedly designed form of "psychological trap".
Normally, when seeing content clearly labeled as advertising, viewers will tend to receive it more cautiously.
Positive reviews repeated by many KOLs can create a crowd effect and fear of missing out (FOMO) for consumers (Graphic: AI).
However, when the same message is told in terms of personal experience, the “skeptical filter” is likely to be disabled.
Statements like "I paid for it myself", "I used it for a month and found it effective" or "this is the product I like the most" easily create a feeling of authenticity and objectivity much more than a regular advertisement.
Notably, many KOLs simultaneously post positive content about a product without openly sponsoring it. As a result, consumers may also fall into the fear of missing out.
The product is created as a trend that everyone is using. This causes many people to rush to deposit money before fully verifying the information.
When does a “personal review” become an advertisement?
One of the common controversies today is that many people think they are just sharing their feelings and not doing advertising activities.
According to lawyer Nguyen Van Duy, this is an incomplete understanding of the law.
He believes that the line between personal experience and advertising is not determined by how the content is called or whether or not an advertising contract is signed.
Clause 1, Article 2 of the 2012 Law on Advertising stipulates that advertising is the activity of introducing products, goods or services for profit purposes.
The "profitable" factor is not limited to receiving money from the brand but is understood in a broad sense.
Giving away a free phone for experimentation, receiving commissions from affiliate marketing, receiving service vouchers or any other material benefits in exchange for product referrals are all considered advertising.
In addition, Point h, Clause 1, Article 10 and Point b, Clause 3, Article 22 of the 2023 Law on Consumer Rights Protection also clearly stipulate the responsibility to publicly disclose sponsorship in all forms.
This means that receiving trial products, experiential gifts or similar benefits is not a basis for exemption from transparency obligations.
"In commerce, the fact that a business sends a product to a KOL or KOC with expectations or a promotional agreement is already a benefit exchange transaction. From that point on, the obligation to disclose sponsorship must be transparent," the lawyer analyzed.
Mr. Duy emphasized that a truly personal experience must meet many conditions.
Reviewers must pay their own money to buy the product, provide voluntary comments, do not accept any direction from the brand and do not receive material or non-material benefits from the posted content.
On the contrary, if there is an exchange of benefits of any kind, the content is advertising in nature and must be disclosed.
Labels such as #Quangcao, #Sponsored or #Ad need to be displayed in a recognizable location so that consumers have enough information before making a decision.
Advertising labels need to be displayed in a recognizable location so that consumers have enough information before making a decision (Graphic: AI).
According to lawyer Nguyen Van Duy, responsibility in cases of disguised advertising belongs to both the person transmitting the content and the business behind it.
For businesses, based on Decree 24/2025/ND-CP (amending and supplementing Decree 98/2020/ND-CP), fines for violations of consumer rights have been significantly increased.
At the same time, with KOLs and KOCs, if they transmit information about products that receive sponsorship but do not make them public or review them falsely, they will be at risk of being handled according to Decree 87/2026/ND-CP on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of culture and advertising.
Businesses, KOLs and KOCs can face heavy fines if they advertise, receive sponsorship but do not disclose or provide false information; Experts suggest the need to standardize advertising labeling and increase the control responsibility of platforms (Graphic: AI).
To protect consumers more effectively, the lawyer proposed the need to standardize regulations on advertising labeling, with specific regulations on the location, size and presentation of sponsored content.
At the same time, platforms also need to be asked to participate more actively in controlling advertising content.
In addition to fines, authorities may consider applying additional measures such as forcing a public apology and suspending account activity for a certain period of time in cases of serious violations.
Funding transparency is the global norm
Besides Vietnam, countries around the world have also made moves and regulations to control the non-disclosure of sponsorship behavior of many influential people on social networks.
The US Federal Trade Commission requires influencers to disclose any financial relationships or material interests with businesses when promoting products. These benefits can be sponsorships, gifts, free product trials, or sales commissions.
The US Federal Trade Commission requires influencers to disclose any financial relationships or material interests with businesses when promoting products (Graphic: AI).
In March 2020, the US Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to 10 Instagram influencers for promoting Teami LLC products but not properly disclosing the sponsorship relationship.
In the UK, the British Advertising Standards Authority requires that any content posted by influencers, if it involves any commercial interest from the brand, must be clearly identified as advertising.
In the UK, advertising content needs to be clearly labeled as “Ad” at the beginning of the post or video, instead of using vague expressions. (Graphics: AI).
For the EU, the European Commission has also developed guidance documents for influencers, brands and media units on legal obligations when promoting products in the digital environment.
The guidance stipulates that people who regularly make money from creating content, advertising or selling products on social networks can be considered “merchants” and must comply with the same consumer protection regulations as businesses.
However, actual inspections in some European countries show that violations are still quite common. In 2023, the French consumer protection agency found that 60% of influencers examined did not comply with regulations on advertising and consumer rights.
In France, 60% of influencers examined did not comply with regulations on advertising and consumer rights (Graphic: AI).
As influencer marketing grows, sponsorship transparency is becoming the norm to protect consumers' right to know and choose.