Kim Kardashian is one of the biggest celebrities out there and one of the biggest celebrity influencers. But did you know that Kim Kardashian violated influencer laws? She did, and this blog will tell you all about it from the perspective of an influencer lawyer.
Before we discuss how Kim Kardashian violated influencer laws, let’s set the record straight as to why am I talking about this. I’m not doing it to bash Kim Kardashian, she’s one of the best influencers and celebrities that are out there. But she made a mistake when it came to promoting products and services on her Instagram account. And I want to make sure that other influencers out there don’t make that mistake because there are serious legal repercussions if you as an influencer don’t follow the law or if you are a brand that hires influencers and if your influencers don’t follow the law or you didn’t train them correctly, you can get in trouble too.
So now what happened with Kim Kardashian? How did she get in trouble with influencer laws? Well, Kim Kardashian partnered with a company called Sugar Bear Hair and she created a social media post about how she uses Sugar Bear Hair and about how great her hair looks having used this little Sugar Bear Hair gummy products and she used #SP in her post. Take a look below:
As a result of this post, Kim Kardashian and Sugar Bear Hair got a ton of engagement. I mean 875,000+ likes and thousands of comments. That influencer relationship between Kim Kardashian and Sugar Bear Hair, I’m sure was worth its weight in gold.
Look, I’ve been on social media for, I don’t know, like 5, 10 years, I haven’t gotten a total of 875,000 likes in my entire life. She got that on one darn post and all those comments. She’s done a great job at being an influencer for her product.
But after she did this, Kim Kardashian and about 49 other celebrities including Snookie, J-Lo and others received a letter from the FTC. In the letter, the FTC says, in a nutshell, “You posted on Instagram about Sugar Bear Hair and you used #SP. But this Instagram post doesn’t comply with the law because you, Kim Kardashian, didn’t clearly and conspicuously disclose that this was a sponsored post. You didn’t clearly and conspicuously disclose the material connection between you and the brand.” Basically, they said if you Kim K. just love the product and you didn’t get paid for it, no problem. We want you to go ahead and leave online reviews, but if there is a material connection/payment involved, you have to say that – and using the letters SP does not clearly and conspicuously disclose that this was a sponsored post.
Now you’re sitting there thinking, “Ethan, I don’t know, SP kind of sounds like sponsored. I would know what that means.” And, as an influencer lawyer, I’d say, that’s cool. I believe you. But looking at this objectively, a 13-year-old girl looks at this post and thinks, “I want to look like Kim Kardashian. She uses this product. I should use it too.” #SP does it clearly and conspicuously disclose to her that it’s an ad. Had she used the hashtag sponsored in a clear and conspicuous manner, she would’ve been completely fine. But that’s not what happened here. And Kim Kardashian violated influencer laws.
So, did the FTC fine Kim Kardashian and Sugar Bear Hair $43,000 for this violation? No, they didn’t. The FTC wanted to education them and others like you by essentially saying, “This is a warning for influencers and brands to start following the rules.” But other brands have been subject to fines by the FTC, such as Lord and Taylor, Microsoft, X-Box, some big companies out there, who also violated influential laws by not following the rules.
The bottom line is: you need to understand how to follow the rules and learn from the lesson about what happened with Kim Kardashian and the Federal Trade Commission so you can avoid this in the first place, so that you as an influencer can influence correctly, and so you as a brand can hire influencers with confidence that you’re going to get all that great engagement without that massive FTC fine.
Look, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities that received a cease and desist letter from the FTC didn’t mean to violate Instagram influencer laws. They may just not have known what the law is, and that’s why the FTC took it easy on them this time with a warning. But other brands have been fined in a big way. I don’t want it happening to you. So, let’s use the lessons that we learned here today in order to protect yourself as an influencer or the companies that hire them. You can learn how to comply with influencer laws in our next blog: Influencer Attorney Advice: How to Comply with Influencer Laws.
And in the meantime, if you are an influencer or a brand that hires them, and needs help understanding influencer laws and protecting yourself with an influencer contract, just reach us today. As an influencer attorney, I’d be happy to help.
