Belgium’s Influencer Bill Is the Next EU Disclosure and Counterfeit Wave After France and Spain

Belgium’s draft would require full-duration Advertisement or Commercial partnership labels, supplier and non-counterfeit verification on every promoted product, and puts agents in scope alongside influencers, the same disclosure-plus-counterfeit pattern France’s 2023 Influence Act and Spain’s 2024 Royal Decree already established, now extended through Belgium’s Code of Economic Law rather than a new bloc-wide statute.

Per Dig.watch and NetInfluencer, the bill was introduced in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives on August 27, 2026, and defines “influencer marketing activity” broadly: any case where a person uses popularity with followers, in exchange for consideration, to offer content that directly or indirectly promotes a good or service. That definition is wider than a paid #ad caption; consideration plus popularity used to promote is enough to bring a post into scope, whether or not it looks like a traditional ad.

If passed on schedule, the rules take effect February 1, 2027. Treat the bill as the next template brands will need to copy into briefs, not as enforceable law today.

The draft requires a clear, legible Advertisement or Commercial partnership label that stays visible for the full length of the content, supplier identity and non-counterfeit verification on every promoted product, and names agents alongside influencers as jointly responsible for those checks, with violations enforced under penalties Belgium’s Code of Economic Law already sets for unfair commercial practices.

Three requirements do most of the work. First, the label must stay visible for the entire duration of the content, not flash briefly at the start, closing the loophole a three-second sticker or a buried caption line currently exploits. Second, the influencer or their agent must disclose the actual supplier of a promoted product, confirm it is available for purchase, and verify it meets EU and Belgian standards and is not counterfeit. Third, agencies that book Belgian creators, or creators selling into Belgian audiences under the bill’s definition, share that verification duty; a brief that names only the creator as responsible would not satisfy the draft as written.

Kimiya Shams, legal counsel at Devialet, argued the underlying principle years before this specific bill existed, writing in World Trademark Review that “an influencer should equally bear joint and several liability when they know or should have known that the product or content that they are advertising is false.” Belgium’s bill is one of the first attempts to write that liability principle directly into statute rather than leave it to case-by-case enforcement.

Brands booking talent that sell into Belgium, or agents who place them, should add three lines to every brief now: full-duration Advertisement or Commercial partnership labeling, supplier identity and availability checks on every promoted SKU, and a non-counterfeit verification step with the responsible agent named. Waiting for the plenary vote before drafting the checklist repeats the France and Spain pattern of scrambling after the fact.

1. Require the Advertisement or Commercial partnership label to stay visible for the entire piece of content, not just the opening seconds.
2. Require supplier identity and purchase-availability confirmation on every promoted SKU, gray-market and gifted products included.
3. Name the agent or agency responsible for the non-counterfeit and advertising-restriction check in the statement of work, in writing.

Storika tracks disclosure status, usage rights, and approval state at the creator and asset level across a pool of more than 7 million creator profiles, rather than in email threads a compliance review has to reconstruct after the fact. That structure is what lets a brand answer a question like Belgium’s draft bill raises before a campaign ships: which creators and assets already have the supplier and non-counterfeit checks documented, not just which ones have a signed contract.

See the influencer marketing compliance workflow guide for the full operating layer this fits into, and the creator usage rights and ad reuse guide for the related question of what a brand can actually do with a post once it is live.

Pair this guide with Influencer Marketing Compliance Workflow, Influencer Marketing Compliance: FTC and Kidfluencer Law 2026, and Creator Usage Rights vs. Ad Reuse for how disclosure, contract, and rights questions connect across US and EU creator programs.