In the ten countries below, regulators treat gifted product as a connection creators may need to disclose, but the label and the threshold differ: the UK wants "Ad" upfront, Norway wants "reklame" or "annonse", and Germany's media authorities tie it to a €100 product value. Pick a country for its rule.
Pick a country to see its regulator, the label wording it publishes, how it treats gifted product, and a sentence you can paste into a creator brief. The address updates so you can share the result.
Ten countries where we could verify the gifted-product position from an official source.
Which country's rules apply depends on facts only you and a lawyer can settle. This shows the rules for the one you pick.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Required label
No mandated wording. The disclosure must be clear and conspicuous. FTC staff advise disclosing above the "more" button on Instagram, and a disclosure only on a profile page fails.
Gifted product
Free or discounted products are a material connection under 16 CFR 255.5, even if the advertiser does not require an endorsement in return. Disclosure is needed when a significant minority of the audience would not expect the connection. Advertisers should guide and monitor their endorsers.
Line for your brief
When you post about the product we sent you, please label the post as advertising using a clear "#ad" style disclosure above the "more" cut-off, in the post itself. Free product can count as a connection with our brand, so please label the post even though you were not paid. Check the rules for United States: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-255/section-255.5
Sources: eCFR: 16 CFR 255.5 Disclosure of material connections; FTC: Disclosures 101 for social media influencers
Seed's gifting link tells creators what you are sending, so the gifted-product disclosure conversation starts with the order, not after the post. Install Seed on Shopify
One row per country: the regulator, the label it asks for, how it treats free product, and the official source. Wording is paraphrased from the linked pages; follow the link for the exact text.
| Country | Regulator | Required label | Gifted-product rule | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | No mandated wording. The disclosure must be clear and conspicuous. FTC staff advise disclosing above the "more" button on Instagram, and a disclosure only on a profile page fails. | Free or discounted products are a material connection under 16 CFR 255.5, even if the advertiser does not require an endorsement in return. Disclosure is needed when a significant minority of the audience would not expect the connection. Advertisers should guide and monitor their endorsers. | eCFR: 16 CFR 255.5 Disclosure of material connectionsFTC: Disclosures 101 for social media influencers |
| United Kingdom | Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and CAP; Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) | A prominent "Ad", "Advert" or "Advertisement" label upfront. The ASA advises against "Gift/Gifted", "Sponsored" and "Thanks to [brand]". A brand tag alone, a label buried in hashtags, or one only in the bio falls short. | The ASA treats gifted products and freebies as payment in kind, so a post about them generally needs an ad label. The CMA says hidden advertising is illegal. | ASA: recognising ads on social media and influencer marketingGOV.UK (CMA): social media endorsements, guidance for content creators |
| France | DGCCRF (Ministry of the Economy) | The mention « Publicité » or « Collaboration commerciale » (or an equivalent mention suited to the format), clear, legible and identifiable on the image or video for the whole promotion (Law 2023-451, art. 5, as amended in 2024). | The law does not use the word for gifts. DGCCRF's practical guidance lists « offert » as an example of an acceptable mention that shows the commercial nature immediately; that is an administrative reading, not statute text. Missing the mention is treated as a misleading commercial practice by omission. | Légifrance: Law 2023-451 of 9 June 2023economie.gouv.fr: influenceurs, quels sont mes devoirs ? |
| Germany | Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities); consumer-protection courts under the UWG | Advertising must be recognisable at first glance. A blanket note on the account is not enough, and each Instagram story slide in an advertising context needs its own marking (Medienanstalten labelling guide). | The media authorities say product handed over free can still be advertising. Their guide requires labelling for free products only where the value (or the total from one brand) exceeds €100, but they also note that the Federal Court of Justice has held that the mere expectation of promotion can trigger the duty. Under Section 5a(4) UWG, consumer advocates say the influencer carries the burden of proving no consideration was given. Label when in doubt. | Medienanstalten: guide to advertising labelling in online mediaVerbraucherzentrale: when is a social media post advertising? |
| Netherlands | Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) supervises; Stichting Reclame Code (SRC) self-regulation, Reclamecode Social Media & Influencer Marketing | The consumer must be able to tell easily that it is advertising. A bare "@" mention or a discount code is not enough. SRC says Instagram's paid-partnership feature is usually clear enough, and that an #ad mark must be easy to access, for example at the front of a video. | SRC treats receiving free products as a relevant relationship that must be disclosed, particularly where the influencer was asked to post about them. A 2024 ruling states that free products given to influencers who then post about them can affect the credibility of the advertising. | Stichting Reclame Code: social media and influencer rules |
| Sweden | Konsumentverket (Swedish Consumer Agency) | It must be clear that it is advertising; Konsumentverket says to mark posts with the word "reklam". Wording, placement and colour of the marking all matter. | Payment can be money or other economic benefit such as goods, so gifted product falls under the same rules. The company's responsibility cannot be contracted away to influencers, and influencers can share responsibility. | Konsumentverket: influencers' ad posts, rules for companies |
| Norway | Forbrukertilsynet (Norwegian Consumer Authority) | "reklame" or "annonse", prominent and immediate, naming the advertiser. Words such as "gave", "gifted", "sponset" and "i samarbeid med" are not considered clear enough, and Instagram's "Betalt partnerskap" label alone does not satisfy the authority. | If an influencer is invited to events or sent products because of their influence and the sender knows they will post, it will often be advertising that must be made clear to followers. Advertisers are expected to train influencers and check their posts. | Forbrukertilsynet: guide to labelling advertising in social media |
| Denmark | Forbrugerombudsmanden (Consumer Ombudsman) | "reklame for [brand]" or "annonce for [brand]" as the first thing in each post, with every post marked individually. Platform labels alone are not recommended. Posts in Danish need Danish labels. | Free or discounted products, gifts, treatments, trips and event invitations all count as a commercial interest. If a company keeps giving products that the creator praises, the posts must still be marked as advertising. | Forbrugerombudsmanden: hidden advertising on social media |
| Australia | Ad Standards (AANA Code of Ethics, section 2.7) | The relationship must be clear, obvious and upfront, for example #ad, Advert, Advertising, Branded Content, Paid Partnership or Paid Promotion. Labels such as #sp, Spon, gifted, Affiliate, Collab or "thanks to" may not be enough. | Ad Standards panels have treated a gift as evidence that the advertiser expects a post. The Code applies where the advertiser has a reasonable degree of control over the content, and the Practice Note says that where a brand sends free product with no control over what is said, the post is unlikely to be advertising. The AANA code is under review. | Ad Standards: influencer marketing, a guide to disclosing ad contentAANA: Code of Ethics practice note (February 2021) |
| Canada | Competition Bureau (Competition Act); Ad Standards (Influencer Marketing Disclosure Guidelines, updated 2025) | Disclose the nature of the connection clearly and prominently, close to the claim, for example #Gifted or #InvitedGuest. Ad Standards lists #Ambassador, #Partner and #Collab as ambiguous. The Bureau says tagging a brand or posting a discount code is unlikely to be enough. | The Competition Bureau lists free products or services as an example of a material connection that should be disclosed. The 2025 Ad Standards guidelines give separate direction for gifted products versus event invitations. | Competition Bureau: influencer marketing and the Competition ActAd Standards: influencer marketing resources |
Not in the table: Italy and Spain. Both have influencer rules (Italy through AGCOM guidelines and the IAP Digital Chart, Spain through the General Audiovisual Communication Law for "users of special relevance"), but we could not confirm from an official source how they treat free product, so we left them out rather than guess.
Four points show up across the regulators above. Each is attributed, so you can check it.
The ASA expects a prominent label upfront, the FTC says to disclose above the "more" button, Denmark wants the label as the first thing in each post, and France requires the mention to stay visible for the whole promotion.
The ASA, Australia's Ad Standards and Norway's Forbrukertilsynet all say those wordings can fall short, and Canada's Competition Bureau says a brand tag or discount code alone is unlikely to be enough.
Norway and Denmark steer creators to add a plain advertising word on top of Instagram's partnership label, and the FTC warns that a small, low-contrast built-in label can fail.
The FTC, Sweden and Norway all put some responsibility on the advertiser. Write the wording into the brief, and look at posts when they go live. The influencer brief generator and the influencer contract generator can carry it.
In the ten countries below, the regulator treats free product as a connection a creator may need to disclose when posting about it. The FTC lists free products as a material connection, and the UK ASA treats gifts as payment in kind. Details differ by country, so check the table row for yours.
It depends on the country. The UK ASA advises against "gifted", Australia's Ad Standards says it may not be enough, and Norway's regulator does not consider it clear enough. Canada's Ad Standards uses #Gifted as an example. When unsure, lead with the local word for advertising, then say the product was gifted.
Both can be. The FTC says advertisers should guide and monitor endorsers and that the influencer may also be liable. Sweden's Konsumentverket says a company's responsibility cannot be contracted away, and Norway expects advertisers to train influencers and check posts. Put the label wording in your brief and check posts.
Not reliably. The Dutch SRC says it is usually clear enough, but Norway's regulator wants "reklame" or "annonse" added, Denmark's ombudsman does not recommend platform labels alone, and the FTC says relying only on a small, low-contrast built-in label can fail. Add a plain-word label in the caption.
Only Germany's media-authority guide sets one in the sources we read: €100 for a product or the total from one brand, though courts and consumer advocates take a stricter view. The FTC test is whether a significant minority of the audience would not expect the connection. We found no other country's value threshold, so label when unsure.
That depends on facts such as where the audience is and where the brand and creator are based, and this guide cannot decide it for you. If creators or audiences span several countries, use the strictest label in the table, and ask a lawyer before a large campaign. This is not legal advice.
Last updated: October 29, 2026
For each country we read the regulator's own guidance (or the statute text it points to) on 29 October 2026 and recorded three things: the label wording published, the gifted-product position, and the page it came from. Where an authority did not say something, the table says nothing rather than filling the gap. Self-regulatory bodies (UK ASA, Dutch SRC, Ad Standards in Australia and Canada) set codes that are enforced differently from statute; the regulator column names which is which.
What we did not verify: Italy and Spain (omitted); how each country decides which law applies to a cross-border post; penalties; sector rules for categories such as supplements, cosmetics or alcohol; platform policies; and anything published after October 29, 2026. Germany's €100 figure comes from the media authorities' guide and is in tension with the courts' stricter view, which we report rather than resolve. The brief wording is our paraphrase of each regulator's published labels, not an official template.
This is not legal advice. Rules and thresholds change, and each rule below depends on facts we cannot see. Check the linked official source for your case and ask a qualified professional before you rely on it. Last checked October 29, 2026.
Build a gifting agreement in under a minute — deliverables, posting window, usage rights, and FTC disclosure. Copy it or save as PDF. Free, no email.
The same contract generator, pre-set for an Instagram deliverable: in-feed post plus story.
The same contract generator, pre-set for a TikTok deliverable.
A content-licensing agreement for UGC, not a posting agreement. Usage rights and deliverables only.
For unpaid product-gifting sends specifically: the gift, deliverables, and usage rights.
Send personalized bulk Instagram DMs to creators without copy-pasting one message at a time. Built for outreach at volume.
The Chrome extension behind the DM assistant above. Install it, connect your Seed account, send from your own session.
Put in your product cost, shipping, and creator count, and get your real cost per piece of content, including your own hours. Ungated.
How much should you pay an influencer? Enter views and a CPM to get a fair cash range, and see if your gifted product alone is a fair trade.
Work out a creator's engagement rate on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, by followers and by views. Average up to 12 posts. Free, no email.
Build an influencer media kit with stats, audience, past collabs and rates. Live preview, three layouts, save as PDF. Free, no signup.
A UGC or influencer rate card with deliverables, usage rights, whitelisting and bundles. Preview it, then save as PDF. Free, no signup.
Three ready-to-send pitch emails (cold, warm, follow-up) for creators asking brands for PR packages or collabs. Free, no signup.
What can you actually earn on TikTok? Sponsored-post rate by tier, Creator Rewards eligibility, and a TikTok Shop affiliate estimate. Free, no signup.
Sponsored feed post, Reel and Story rate ranges by follower tier, plus an affiliate-earnings estimate. Free, no signup.
Score a creator's video against your brief in about two minutes. Free, no login.
Enter how many posts you want and get the number of creators to contact and gift, using your own acceptance and post rates.
Plan a gifting campaign budget: product, packaging and shipping cost by lane, total cost and cost per creator.
Compare the cost per 1,000 views and per content piece of influencer gifting against Meta and TikTok ads, with your own numbers.
Answer six questions to find the right influencer deal type for a creator: gifting, a flat fee, or affiliate commission.
Build a free influencer gifting application form with the exact fields to ask, then copy it or run it live on Shopify.
A free outreach CRM template with statuses, follow-up dates and notes. Download the CSV for Google Sheets or Excel.
Track sends, posts, discount codes, revenue and ROI with formulas built in. Download the CSV for Google Sheets.
Generate a one-page influencer brief: product, key messages, dos and don'ts, disclosure and deadlines. Free, no signup.
Generate a short outreach DM or email offering influencers a gifted product, in your own tone and language.
Score your influencer outreach subject lines against a transparent checklist, and get better variants.
Pick a niche and platform for a hand-written hashtag set, mixed broad to niche. No made-up volume numbers.
Get a recommended monthly influencer budget, split across gifting, paid posts and UGC, from your revenue and stage.
Estimate the real cost of a PR package: product, box, inserts, packing materials and shipping.
Calculate what the content from your gifting campaign would cost to buy from an agency or UGC creators instead.
Estimate fair UGC rates from experience level, deliverables and usage rights, for brands and creators, sources linked.
Estimate fair YouTube sponsorship rates from a channel's average views, format and usage rights, sources linked.
Estimate expected reach for a creator's post, Reel or Story from follower count, using published benchmarks.
Calculate follower growth rate over any period and flag suspicious spikes between two checkpoints.
Enter a follower count to see its influencer tier under three published definitions, with typical CPM ranges.
Create $0 influencer orders in Shopify, tag them, and calculate the real COGS and shipping cost of every gift.
Generate hundreds of unique influencer discount codes from a prefix and download a CSV, ready for a Shopify bulk-codes app or the API.
Per-creator code conversion plus an estimate of the halo sales promo codes miss, with every assumption editable.
Paste your landing page and a list of creators and get one tagged UTM link per creator in bulk, as a CSV.
Price usage rights for creator content in ads: duration, channels and exclusivity, with editable percentages. Free, no signup.
Add the creator fee to your media spend to get blended CPM and CPA for TikTok Spark Ads or Meta partnership ads.
Turn a creator's fee and post stats into CPM, cost per engagement and cost per view, and compare with your own benchmark.
Estimate EMV from views, likes, comments and shares using values you set, plus an honest look at why EMV isn't revenue.
Find the most you can pay to acquire a customer through influencers, from your margin, repeat orders and target LTV:CAC ratio.
Find the highest affiliate commission you can pay influencers from your order value, costs and the profit you want to keep.
Build a tiered ambassador commission ladder from your margin, a starting rate and sales thresholds. Copy it or download CSV.
Work out ROI, ROAS and break-even revenue for a paid or gifted influencer campaign from your costs, commission and margin.
Get a step-by-step gifting campaign plan with dates and creator counts, from your goal, product and budget.
Score how well a creator fits your brand on a transparent, weighted checklist before you reach out.
Pick a launch date or holiday and get backward-planned recruit, ship and posting-window dates for 2026 and 2027.
See whether import VAT and duty likely apply when gifting product abroad, for the EU, UK, Switzerland and Norway, with official sources.
What the IRS, HMRC, CRA, ATO and other tax authorities say about gifted product as creator income, with sources. Not tax advice.
Share one branded link. The creator picks a product and types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your Shopify admin. Seed then follows up and tracks their posts.