PARIS: The upper house of France’s parliament is scheduled to vote on Thursday on laws that will better regulate social media influencers by limiting and regulating their power to endorse things and encourage betting.
The initiative, introduced by deputies from the Socialist Party and President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance faction, was approved by the lower house, National Assembly, late Wednesday. It has broad cross-party support, which is unusual in France’s current resentful political climate. The Senate, which is dominated by the right, is expected to approve the bill in a vote on Thursday afternoon.
According to Arthur Delaporte, the law of the jungle has been destroyed. Many influencers have a small following, but some stars with millions of followers can affect consumer behavior, particularly among young people.
The measure seeks to establish influencers as legal groups who utilize their fame to promote products and services. It forbids the promotion of some practices, such as cosmetic surgery, and forbids or severely restricts the sale of a number of medical devices. It also targets sports betting and chance games. Influencers will no longer be able to advertise subscriptions to sports forecasting services, and the promotion of games of chance will be limited to platforms that have the ability to prevent minors from accessing them.
Punishments could go up to two years in prison for violators and 300,000 euro($321,000) fines. At the end of March, the Union of Influencers and Content Creators, set up recently to represent players in the sector, welcomed “commendable and essential proposals”. But it warned parliamentarians against the risk of “discriminating against or over-regulating” certain players.
