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This week, the French Advertising SRO (ARPP - Autorité de Régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité), held an event entitled “2025 Observatory for Responsible Commercial Influence”, during which the Observatory's results (for the first half of 2025) were presented (https://www.arpp.org/influence-responsable/observatoire-influence-responsable/#roir2025).
Indeed, since 2019, the ARPP has been working with technology platforms specialized in the influencer marketing business to analyze influencers' posts on several social media platforms and to flag non-compliant content.
In 2025, for the first time, the use of a new artificial intelligence method made it possible to scan 194k posts/content (vs. approximately 60k in 2024 ; the forecast for the full year being 400k) and highlight breaches that were previously undetectable, as this new technique now makes it possible to analyze content (rather than just scanning the textual keywords present in the titles and descriptions of posts) and detect hidden placements or partnerships.
The Observatory's figures show an overall compliance rate of 84% (all methods and profiles combined), but also that the influencers of the "long tail" (fewer than 10,000 followers) behave in a manner that is almost identical to that of the most followed influencers, whereas in the past, these "long tail" influencers could be considered the "dunces."
This trend toward improved commercial influence practices is partly linked to a better apprehension of the ethical and legal framework, particularly the law of June 9, 2023, which regulates influence marketing (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000047663185).
A better grasp of the challenges and constraints facing influencers across all categories can also be linked to the educational work carried out by the ARPP since 2021 with the launch of the ARPP's Responsible Commercial Influence Certificate, which has since been enhanced by the addition of more specific training courses, such as "financial advertising" and "gambling".
The figures presented by the Observatory regarding the new AI-based methodology also highlight the positive impact of this Certificate, which is now being exported to Europe via the Ad Ethics platform under the impetus of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA).
The ARPP announced that by the end of the year, 12 European countries will have joined this initiative.
With the integration of AI, the Observatory for Responsible Commercial Influence has reached a decisive milestone: it allows us to reveal violations that previously escaped detection using older methods. This technological advance reinforces the pioneering role of the French self-regulation model, developed in collaboration with all stakeholders in the profession and civil society. (Mohamed Mansouri, Deputy Director of the ARPP)
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