EU Law: The Digital Services Act (DSA)

The DSA imposes advertising-transparency duties on platforms and gives creators a mechanism to declare commercial content — a complement to explicit disclosure.

The Digital Services Act (DSA), Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, became fully applicable to all in-scope services on 17 February 2024. While the DSA primarily regulates online platforms rather than individual affiliates, its advertising-transparency duties shape how affiliate and influencer content must be identified on those platforms.

Advertising transparency (Article 26)

For each advertisement shown, platforms must ensure users can identify, clearly and in real time:

• that the information is an advertisement, including through prominent markings;
• the natural or legal person on whose behalf the ad is presented;
• the person who paid for the ad, if different;
• meaningful information about the main parameters used to determine who sees the ad, and how to change them.

The declaration mechanism for creators

Article 26 also requires platforms to provide a way for users to declare that their content contains or constitutes a commercial communication, and to make that identifiable to other users clearly and in real time. This is the mechanism through which influencers and affiliates flag paid content on regulated platforms — and it complements, rather than replaces, the explicit in-content disclosure required by the UCPD and national rules.

What it means in practice

Affiliates operating on large platforms should use the platform’s commercial-content declaration tools and add their own clear disclosure. As with the FTC’s view of platform tools, the declaration mechanism supports compliance but does not, by itself, discharge the separate duty to make commercial intent obvious to the audience.

See also the upcoming Digital Fairness Act, which may add dedicated influencer rules.

Last reviewed July 2026. This page is general educational information, not legal or tax advice.