The ACCC has issued Australia's first financial penalty for undisclosed influencer promotions, fining PhotobookShop A$39,600 for instructing influencers not to disclose gifted products across 107 separate occasions. After years of warnings, enforcement has arrived. Brands and creators who assumed the rules would not be applied need to update that assumption.
Brands that have been running influencer programs without disclosure review are not in a grey area. They are in an enforcement area that has just had its first example made.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued its first financial penalty for undisclosed influencer promotions. Tomsem Consolidated, trading as PhotobookShop, was fined A$39,600 after the ACCC issued two infringement notices covering 107 separate occasions on which the company instructed influencers not to disclose receipt of free gifted products.
The fine is modest relative to the conduct. The signal is not. The ACCC listed deceptive digital conduct, including influencer marketing, online reviews and AI-generated fake content, as an explicit 2025-26 enforcement priority. The PhotobookShop action is the first of that campaign, not the last.
Influencer marketing in Australia has operated in a self-regulatory environment since AiMCO published its Code of Practice, with disclosure requirements covering #ad, #sponsored and #gifted hashtags under Australian Consumer Law. The law has existed for years. Active enforcement, until now, has not.
Separate occasions on which PhotobookShop instructed influencers not to disclose gifted products — the basis of Australia's first influencer marketing financial penalty
Why it matters
For Australian brands, the ACCC action ends a long period where influencer disclosure was treated as a guideline rather than a requirement. The PhotobookShop fine signals that the regulator is prepared to move from warnings to infringement notices and financial penalties.
AiMCO has spent the past 18 months developing Australia's first comprehensive guidelines for child and family influencer marketing, indicating that enforcement interest is expanding beyond basic gifting disclosure to more complex areas involving minors and family content.