Advertising Disclosure on Social Media
Advertising disclosure means that a post on social networks is recognisably identified as advertising as soon as any consideration was given for it, such as money, discounts or free products. The label must be understandable at first glance, before the content is consumed.
In practice
In Austria the legal basis is the Act Against Unfair Competition, which classes advertising disguised as editorial content as an unfair commercial practice and thereby implements Annex I point 11 of the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, together with the separate Austrian labelling duty for paid publications under section 26 of the Media Act, in so far as the channel qualifies as a medium within the meaning of that Act. Use unambiguous German words such as Werbung or Anzeige at the start of the post, not at the end of a block of hashtags and not as abbreviations. The platform's own paid-partnership label helps but is widely regarded as insufficient on its own; where in doubt, add a disclosure of your own as well. Whether the Media Act applies alongside competition law in a given case depends on whether the channel qualifies as a medium — for larger collaborations you should have that clarified by a solicitor. Staff promoting their employer's products must also disclose where the commercial connection is not obvious.