Compliance snapshot
What the rules actually require in 2026
Two rulebooks apply to most Indian brands running influencer campaigns: the US FTC Endorsement Guides wherever you reach American buyers, and ASCI plus the CCPA guidelines at home.
What the FTC requires
Source: 16 CFR Part 255 via Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, and the FTC guidance page The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking. Revised Guides issued 29 June 2023.
16 CFR 255.5 covers money, free or discounted product, early access, the possibility of being paid or winning a prize, and business, family or personal relationships. If the audience would not reasonably expect it, it has to be disclosed.
The 2023 revision defines it as difficult to miss, meaning easily noticeable, and easily understandable by ordinary consumers. On social platforms it must also be unavoidable.
The FTC's own position is that tagging a brand is an endorsement, but it is not a disclosure that you have a connection to a brand.
The FTC states that just because a platform offers a paid partnership feature is no guarantee that it is an effective way for influencers to disclose their material connection.
16 CFR 255.5 expects advertisers to have reasonable procedures in place to monitor endorser postings for compliance, including posts by their own employees.
What Indian regulators find
Source: ASCI Annual Complaints Report FY2025-26, as reported by Storyboard18 and BuzzInContent, 2026.
ASCI processed 1,609 influencer advertisements in FY2025-26 and found 97.3 percent required changes.
54 percent of influencer violations involved categories prohibited by law or subject to advertising restrictions, with illegal betting alone at 54.5 percent.
Across the Forbes India Top 100 Digital Stars, 76 percent were found in contravention in 2025, up from 69 percent in 2024.
9,357 of the 9,841 advertisements ASCI scrutinised were digital, and 82 percent of the digital ones were sponsored posts on social media.
88 percent of influencers complied once ASCI intervened, at an average resolution time of eight days.
Penalties and dates on the record
These are the figures a serious compliance conversation turns on. Every one is traceable to a published regulation, order or filing.
This page is general information about advertising regulation, not legal advice. Rules change and their application depends on your specific facts, so take qualified legal counsel before relying on any of it.
How the rulebook changed since 2021
Five years of tightening, in the order it happened, with the dates you can cite.
- 1ASCI influencer guidelines take effect, June 2021
India's Advertising Standards Council released its influencer advertising guidelines on 27 May 2021, to be complied with for posts published on or after 14 June 2021. They cover promotional content whether paid in money or in kind, and list the labels that count: Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee, Free gift, Paid Partnership, Affiliate, and Includes Paid Promotion. Addenda have followed, the most recent dated 7 April 2025.
- 2CCPA endorsement guidelines, June 2022
The Central Consumer Protection Authority brought the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements into force with immediate effect on 9 June 2022. Endorsers must have adequate information about or experience with the product, must give a genuine and reasonably current opinion, and must disclose any material connection affecting credibility.
- 3FTC revises the Endorsement Guides, June 2023
Issued on 29 June 2023, this was the first substantial rewrite since 2009. It expanded endorsement to cover fake endorsers, virtual influencers and tags in social posts, gave clear and conspicuous a formal definition for the first time, added 16 CFR 255.6 on endorsements directed to children, and set out liability for intermediaries such as advertising agencies.
- 4The consumer reviews rule, October 2024
16 CFR Part 465 took effect on 21 October 2024. It bans fake consumer and celebrity testimonials, buying reviews on condition they carry a particular sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews from employees, relatives or agents, company-controlled review sites that appear independent, review suppression through unfounded legal threats or intimidation, and buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence such as bot followers.
- 5Penalty ceiling reset, January 2025
The FTC's inflation adjustment set the maximum civil penalty under Section 5(m)(1)(A) of the FTC Act at $53,088 per violation, applying to penalties assessed after 17 January 2025, including penalties whose associated violation predated that date.
- 6First public enforcement under the reviews rule, December 2025
On 22 December 2025 the FTC sent warning letters to ten companies, whose identities were not made public, over conduct including compensating employees for obtaining five-star reviews from friends and family, and soliciting reviews from people who had no actual experience of the product. Recipients were given five business days to supply a compliance plan.
FTC Endorsement Guides beside ASCI and CCPATwo rulebooks
Sources: 16 CFR Parts 255 and 465 via Cornell Law School LII and the Federal Trade Commission; ASCI influencer advertising guidelines at ascionline.in; CCPA Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements, 2022. General information, not legal advice.
| Feature | United States (FTC) | India (ASCI and CCPA) |
|---|---|---|
| Legal status | ||
| What triggers disclosure | ||
| Approved wording | ||
| Placement | ||
| Video and live streams | ||
| Duty to check the claims | ||
| Money at stake | ||
| Who else is on the hook |
| Feature | United States (FTC) |
|---|---|
| Legal status | |
| What triggers disclosure | |
| Approved wording | |
| Placement | |
| Video and live streams | |
| Duty to check the claims | |
| Money at stake | |
| Who else is on the hook |
Six disclosure mistakes regulators keep flagging
Each of these has been named in FTC guidance, ASCI findings or a National Advertising Division case.
Tagging instead of disclosing
A tag shows a relationship exists, not that it was paid The FTC states that tagging a brand is an endorsement, but it is not a disclosure that you have a connection to a brand. A tagged post carrying no label is an undisclosed endorsement, and the 2023 revision brought tags in social media posts expressly inside the definition of an endorsement.
Relying only on the platform toggle
Built-in tools have been found insufficient on their own The FTC warns that a platform offering a paid partnership feature is no guarantee it discloses effectively. The National Advertising Division found TikTok's creator earns commission tag insufficient for a dietary supplement promotion and asked for disclosure in both audio and visual form.
Burying the label among hashtags
Position decides whether it counts at all Both regulators require the disclosure to sit with the endorsement and be hard to miss. Mixed into thirty hashtags, pushed below a more button, or parked in the profile page, it fails the FTC test of being unavoidable and the ASCI test of being upfront and prominent.
Disclosing in the wrong language
Match the language the post is written in The FTC is explicit that the connection should be disclosed in whatever language the endorsement is made in, using a Spanish-language post as its example. The same logic applies to creators publishing in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi or Bengali. An English-only hashtag on a regional-language reel sits badly against a standard built on what ordinary consumers understand.
Description-box disclosure on video
It has to live inside the video The FTC asks for the disclosure in the video itself and notes viewers are more likely to notice it in both audio and visuals. Long live streams should repeat it periodically. ASCI requires video labels superimposed for a minimum duration and live disclosures at the start and the end.
Treating gifting as if it were unpaid
Free product is a material connection The FTC counts free or discounted products as a material connection even where the brand never asked for a mention, and ASCI covers promotional content paid in kind as well as in cash. Separately, 16 CFR Part 465 targets undisclosed insider reviews from employees, relatives and agents, so staff posts carry their own exposure.
Enforcement
Enforcement is no longer theoretical
Case studies from Dcrayon
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Common compliance questions
They apply to advertising directed at consumers in the United States, wherever the advertiser or creator sits. If your campaign targets American buyers, 16 CFR Part 255 and the reviews rule at Part 465 are in scope. If your audience is Indian, the ASCI guidelines and the CCPA Guidelines of 2022 apply. Many brands need to satisfy both. General information, not legal advice.
FTC guidance treats a disclosure such as Ad or Paid ad at the very start of a post as a sound default for a text caption. It is not sufficient on its own for video, where the disclosure needs to appear inside the video in both audio and visuals, nor for a long live stream, where it needs to repeat because viewers join partway through. ASCI similarly wants the label upfront and prominent rather than at the end of a caption.
16 CFR Part 465, effective 21 October 2024, bans fake consumer and celebrity testimonials, buying reviews conditioned on a particular sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews from employees, relatives or agents, company-controlled review sites presented as independent, review suppression through unfounded legal threats or intimidation, and trading in fake indicators of social media influence. Offering an incentive for a review is still permitted provided there is no express or implied requirement that it be positive, though failing to disclose the incentive can still breach the FTC Act.
Under 16 CFR 1.98, penalties assessed after 17 January 2025 can reach $53,088 per violation under Section 5(m)(1)(A) of the FTC Act. In India the CCPA can impose up to Rs 10 lakh for a first contravention and up to Rs 50 lakh for later ones, and can prevent an endorser from endorsing for up to one year, extending to three years for repeat contraventions.
Both, and since the 2023 revision of the Endorsement Guides, intermediaries such as advertising agencies as well. 16 CFR 255.5 expects advertisers to keep reasonable procedures in place and to monitor whether their endorsers are disclosing. In the 2025 class actions against Shein and Celsius Holdings, the brands and the individual influencers were named together as co-defendants.
Write the required label into the brief rather than leaving it to the creator, specify placement per format, keep dated screenshots of every live post, and re-check content after publication because captions get edited. Then audit a sample every month against both rulebooks. That covers the operational side. Anything with legal exposure should go to qualified counsel.
Yes. Our team works remotely from India, a named human lead is accountable for every engagement, and we offer a free audit of your influencer content and briefs against the FTC Endorsement Guides and ASCI requirements, ending in a written gap list. We are a marketing team rather than a law firm, so where something carries legal risk we will say so and point you to qualified counsel.
Get your influencer compliance audit
Send us your campaign details and we will review your current disclosures against both rulebooks.
Get a free influencer compliance audit
Our team will review your live influencer content and creator briefs against the FTC Endorsement Guides and ASCI requirements, then send you a written gap list. A named human lead owns the work from start to finish. Marketing guidance, not legal advice.