AI in advertising: when do you have to disclose it?

EU AI Act: transparency duties (Article 50)

• AI systems that interact directly with people must be designed so that those people are informed they are dealing with an AI system, unless this is obvious to a reasonably well-informed person (Art. 50(1)).[1]
• Providers of AI systems that generate synthetic audio, images, video or text must ensure the output is marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated (Art. 50(2)). Systems already on the market before August 2, 2026 have until December 2, 2026 to comply (Art. 111(4), added by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744).[1][5]
• A business that uses AI to create deepfake images, audio or video must disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated. For evidently artistic, creative, satirical or fictional work, the disclosure can be limited so that it does not spoil the work (Art. 50(4)).[1]
• The information must be given in a clear and distinguishable manner, at the latest at the first interaction or exposure (Art. 50(5)).[1]
• These obligations apply from August 2, 2026. They also cover providers and deployers outside the EU when the AI system’s output is used in the EU (Art. 2(1)(c)).[4][2]
• Breaching Article 50 can be fined up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher; for SMEs and start-ups, whichever is lower (Art. 99(4) and 99(6)).[3]

EU consumer law: reviews

• Claiming that reviews come from customers who actually used or bought the product, without reasonable and proportionate steps to check this, is banned in all circumstances; so is posting, or asking someone else to post, fake reviews (Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I points 23b and 23c, added by Directive (EU) 2019/2161). Generating customer reviews with AI falls under this ban.[6]

When do you have to disclose it?

• If AI or other software is used in an ad in a way that significantly affects consumers’ economic behavior regarding a product or service, or if the ad features AI-generated digital characters that cannot be told apart from humans, this must be stated clearly, understandably and distinguishably (Art. 18/8).[7]
• Ads may not use an AI-generated digital copy of a real person to give the impression that the person has personally tried, used or recommends a product (Art. 27/12).[7]
• Our practice noteThe regulation does not prescribe specific label wording. A plain statement such as “Made with AI,” placed where it is seen at first glance, is common practice.

Social media and influencer ads

• Advertising content on social networks must carry one of the words “Reklam” (ad) or “Tanıtım” (promotion), together with the advertiser’s name or a statement such as “provided by @[advertiser]” (Art. 23/A/3).[7]
• This label must be visible without scrolling when the content is viewed, and it must come before any other tags (Art. 23/A/4).[7]

Reviews, targeted ads and discounts

• Only people who bought the product or service may post consumer reviews; reviews taken from channels where the purchase cannot be verified may not be published (Art. 28/B/1). Generating customer reviews with AI breaks this rule.[7]
• Targeted advertising is allowed only if consumers can easily see which criteria the ad was shown on and how they can change those criteria (Art. 25/A).[7]
• In a discount ad for goods, the “prior price” is the lowest price applied in the ten days before the discount started (Art. 14/3).[7]

Where does this come up?

• Making a short product promo video with AI (in Turkish)
• Creating a voiceover for an ad or video (in Turkish)
• Writing an Instagram post caption (in Turkish)