At the beginning of January, the Meta group (Facebook, Instagram), was forced by the Paris court to withdraw thirty-seven posts from influencers on Instagram. These were deemed not to comply with the Evin law, which has governed alcoholic beverage advertisements for more than thirty years. This « petite » victoire “against online alcohol sponsorship” which the Addictions France association welcomed, however, hides a fundamental problem: the mass of content created by influencers to promote alcohol brands is very difficult to assess and control.
In 2009, the Evin law saw its scope evolve with the HPST law (hospital, patients, health, territories), which authorizes online for alcohol, but with specific restrictions: prohibited on sites intended for minors, it must remain objective and not highlight alcohol in an attractive context such as a party. A prevention message is also mandatory on each publication. When the practice of paid partnerships began to emerge among influencers, the legal framework was therefore very clear. However, violations were quickly observed. in 2018the Cubanisto brand created controversy by linking a partnership with two minor influencers on Instagram. Since then, associations, regulatory bodies and alcoholics have been confronting, in court and behind the scenes, their vision of the Evin law among influencers.
A quantity impossible to control
Today, the associations authorized, in the same way as the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), to take up these subjects lack the means to control the mass of content available online. . “We have to focus on the big influencers, on the most serious casesnotes Franck Lecas, head of the Evin law department at Addictions France. Since the beginning, we have been able to look at the case of two hundred influencers for about five hundred content. We were able to remove half of the permanent content. »
The association thus appeals to the responsibility of the platforms so that they take care of deleting, automatically or with more human means, illegal content. Contacted by The worldTikTok, Meta, and YouTube ensure they follow local laws, and refer to their community guidelines. “Our teams remain very attentive to this subject, we have a grid of very clear rules that we can applysays YouTube France, especially if we are asked to check a particular content, that associations have reported to us for example. »
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