Celebrity chef Donal Skehan in hot water over paid promotions on Instagram

Celebrity chef Donal Skehan has been advised to familiarise himself with official guidance regarding influencer advertising in Ireland.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has confirmed the television personality was issued with a compliance notice last month, over his failure to properly label social media posts as a paid promotion.

The notice was issued on July 28 following an inspection of Mr Skehan's official Instagram account. The inspection identified "a failure to use the appropriate labels to disclose the commercial nature of the content published".

The breach of the guidelines relates to posts involving Wind Shore Goods, which sells a range of products including premium olive oils and kitchen pantry items - Mr Skehan is the founder of the company, which is based in Howth, County Dublin.

"I am of the opinion that you, Donal Skehan, engaged in the prohibited act or practice outlined in the statement of alleged contravention above, by failing to disclose that products relating to ‘Wind Shore Goods’ promoted on your Instagram account @donalskehan were promoted in a paid capacity, and without using appropriate disclosure labels such as‘ Ad’, ‘#ad’ etc," states the compliance report, which was served by an authorised officer at the CCPC.

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The compliance notice, which requires Mr Skehan to "remedy the contraventions" by making it clear that the promotions are paid for, specifically mentions three Instagram posts. 

One of the three is a post promoting a Wind Shore Goods pop-up and cooking demo while the other two were posted on the Wind Shore Goods account promoting collaborations with Donal Skehan.

The compliance notice states that "in all future instances" the celebrity chef must make it clear "where a trader has paid for the promotion of a product or service" in one of his social media posts.

Under consumer protection law, social media influencers must not mislead consumers through unfair practices such as hidden or mislabelled advertising.

This means they must clearly label posts of a commercial nature, however, a social media post may still breach consumer protection law even if it is properly labelled - if the content is false or misleading.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has warned Mr Skehan that his social media channels "will be the subject of further inspection" to ensure adherence to the compliance directions.