This is a first step in regulating the milieu of influence.
At the start of 2023, seven of the country's main influencer marketing agencies - Smile Conseil, Bump, Follow, Point d'Orgue, Reech, Influence4You and Sputnik - are announcing the creation of their professional federation, the Union des métiers influencer and content creators (UMICC).
“
This is a great first for our sector, which is becoming more professional.
And a way, for us, to regain control of the story around influence marketing, with public authorities and the general public
, ”explains to
Le Figaro
Carine Fernandez, president of the Federation and head of Point d’orgue. .
Because for many months, the credibility of the entire ecosystem has been tainted by the many controversies surrounding fraudulent product placements and consumer scams.
While these excesses of social network stars are often the work of a handful of agencies with dubious practices and influencers from reality TV, exiled in Dubai.
Read alsoRise and fall of the empire of Magali Berdah, the popess of influencers
Taken to task by French citizens, the Ministry of the Economy decided to act last December, by launching a vast consultation to try to better regulate the sector.
Various working groups have been set up with professionals in the sector, and Bercy has also launched a website so that citizens and influencers themselves can contribute
"to what they want for the content creations of tomorrow, their environment and their management
.
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- Influencers: how can the state fight against scams?
UMMIC launches a creative label
"
It is partly thanks to the initiative of Bercy that we decided to unite
", specifies Carine Fernandez.
UMICC hopes to become the single point of contact for agencies, influencers and brands to communicate on best practices in the future.
The idea is also to take the lead against the country's major communication groups such as Havas or Publicis.
The seven agencies at the initiative of this Federation bring together more than a hundred content creators who have between 100,000 and 18 million subscribers on Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok and Snapchat, like Squeezie or EnjoyPhoenix.
In the coming weeks, UMICC will launch an “
official creator label
”, necessary to join the Federation.
To obtain it, influencers will have to pass the responsible influence certificate drawn up by the Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP) and sign a charter of good practices, currently being written.
Among the rules envisaged for this charter, the obligation for a content creator to be a French tax resident.
And the total ban on dropshipping - a technique aimed at reselling low-quality products often from China at high prices.
Shauna Events, Magali Berdah's agency entangled in the controversy over rapper Booba's denunciations, as well as the WeEvents agency, also pointed out by consumers, are not "
welcome in the Federation
as they stand ".
Towards a legal arsenal?
At the end of the Bercy public consultation in the spring of 2023, the executive does not refrain from proposing a legislative arsenal, in order to build a liability regime for influencers vis-à-vis the content they post.
At the same time, several deputies such as Stéphane Vojetta (Renaissance), Arthur Delaporte (PS) and Aurélien Taché (EELV) intend to present their own bill very soon.
“
We are open to discussions with each of the deputies.
Even if we think that there is no reason to legislate more, since there are already plenty of rules in place
, specifies Carine Fernandez.
We just have to apply them better”.
The Federation is counting on better application of the rules already in force by the Fraud Prevention Department (DGCCRF) and the platforms.
"
As soon as the excesses are easier to report and the sanctions quicker to give, they will disappear naturally
", judge Carine Fernandez.
The Federation nevertheless says it is open to establishing a legal definition for the term “
content creator
”.
On the occasion of its first general assembly in June, the UMICC hopes to be able to communicate official figures around the economy of the sector in France, which brings together nearly 150,000 influencers.
It has already received around thirty membership requests from agencies, and around a hundred from influencers.
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- "Influencers": how to frame them?
