Social media influencers who receive money from companies to promote products must clearly label such posts as advertisements, a top German court ruled on Thursday.

If the influencers are not paid, they can show products without the advertising label, the Federal Court of Justice ruled in the cases of three influencers on Facebook’s social media site Instagram, Reuters reported from Berlin.

Influencers with thousands of followers can earn large fees from companies to promote a product on Instagram.

The German court said one fitness influencer should have been clear she was advertising when she was paid to promote a brand of jam.

However, it dismissed a case against television presenter and influencer Cathy Hummels, whose post about a stuffed toy had led people to the manufacturer’s site. She had not been paid for the promotion so was not obliged to label it as an ad, the court ruled.

Instagram last year reached a deal with Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to crack down on hidden advertising by influencers on its photo and video platform.

Meanwhile in India, the Advertising Standards Council of India, in collaboration with government agencies, has come out with extensive guidelines for SM influencers.

In the preamble to the self-regulatory framework for SM influencers, ASCI has said as the digital media becomes increasingly pervasive and more consumers start to consume advertising on various digital platforms, it has become important to understand the peculiarities of these advertisements and the way consumers view them.

With lines between content and advertisements becoming blurry, it is critical that consumers must be able to distinguish when something is being promoted with an intention to influence their opinion or behaviour for an immediate or eventual commercial gain.

Consumers may view such messages without realising the commercial intent of these, and that becomes inherently misleading, and in violation of the clause on misleading by omission and abusing trust of consumers or exploiting their lack of experience or knowledge, ASCI had explained.