French influencer marketing trade body UMICC launches Ethical Charters for influencers, agencies and agents

French influencer marketing trade body, UMICC (Union des Métiers de l'Influence et des Créateurs de Contenu), has created a series of ethical charters that will be binding for all its members. 

Created by UMICC’s Ethics Committee, the three proposed charters address agencies, influencer agents and content creators. A fourth charter covering technological solutions like Kolsquare is in planning. 

“These proposed charters are the result of several months of intense collaborative work,” comments Kolsquare Founder and CEO, and UMICC Ethics Committee Vice President, Quentin Bordage. 

“These Ethical Charters represent a major step forward in ensuring a responsible and sustainable future for our industry. We have tried to be exhaustive, yet pragmatic, in covering the full range of issues that our promising industry is facing, and to provide guidance in how best to respond.” 

UMICC members,but also industry players and public authorities are now invited to review and offer feedback on the proposed Ethical Charters. 

The charters will apply to all UMICC members with immediate effect. The Ethics Committee has been empowered to intervene in the event of non-compliance of members with the principals laid out in the charters, and could suspend members from UMICC. 

Contracts, KOL partnerships, and children working as minors, UMICC charters define ethical standards for influencer marketing in France‍

The charters address issues such as relationships and contracts between advertisers, agents and creators, protection of minors working as influencers, transparency, and respect for service providers. 

Importantly, the UMICC charters also address ethical issues such as avoiding hate speech, racism or sexism in content. 

The Ethical Charters also require creators and agencies to respect the recommendations for responsible influence as laid out by France’s advertising self-regulator ARPP, and to favour partnerships with KOLs who have completed the Certificate of Responsible Influence. 

A separate document, List for Brand Checking, was inspired by Paye Ton Influence, an independent organisation which works to raise awareness amongst KOLs and brands in France of the environmental impact of activities. UMICC’s List for Brand Checking provides stakeholders with a practical list of questions to ask and answer before agreeing to partnerships, to ensure the brand’s values align with their own. 

It covers the environmental impact of the brand and its products, evaluating the potential for greenwashing, and provides information about tools to help determine product quality, or whether the brand is an industry lobby.

“There are a multitude of brands, lobbies and services providers all clamouring to work with content creators. In the rush of the day-to-day, it is often difficult for creators, agencies and agents to determine which of them act responsibly, and which ones it might be inadvisable to partner with,” comments Bordage. 

“The idea of the checklist is to provide a clear, straightforward tool to help industry players evaluate potential partners in relation to ecological, ethical and legal considerations.”