In Canada, an influencer has to clearly disclose any material connection with the brand behind a post: payment, commission, free products, discounts, trips, event invitations, employment or a family relationship. The legal duty comes from the deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act, enforced by the Competition Bureau. The working standard comes from Ad Standards' Influencer Marketing Disclosure Guidelines, updated in fall 2025, which recommend upfront labels such as #ad or #sponsored in English and #pub or #commandite in French, written in the language of the post and placed where every viewer will see them.
This guide covers the disclosure duty in depth. The wider Canadian setup, from CRA tax to business registration, is in our Canadian influencer setup checklist.
Two rulebooks: the Competition Act and Ad Standards
The Competition Bureau's page on influencer marketing and the Competition Act says the Act's deceptive marketing provisions apply to anyone promoting a product, service or business interest, so they apply to influencers. It lists money or commissions, free products or services, discounts, free trips or event tickets, and personal or family relationships as connections that may be material. Disclosures should be visible on every device without tapping to expand a post, repeated on each platform, written in plain language, and given in audio as well as on screen where the format needs it. The Bureau adds that tagging a brand, posting a discount code or linking to an affiliate page is unlikely to be enough on its own.
Ad Standards is the industry's self-regulatory body. Its influencer marketing page explains that Clause 7 of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and Interpretation Guideline #5 require any material connection to be disclosed clearly, prominently and close to the endorsement. The 2025 Disclosure Guidelines turn that into practice and make three points worth knowing early: responsibility is shared between the brand, any agency and the influencer; an influencer is anyone with the potential to influence others, whatever their follower count; and the guidelines themselves are best practice that does not guarantee legal compliance.
Disclosure decision table with English and French labels
Labels below are the ones the English guidelines and the French edition, Lignes directrices sur la divulgation, list. XYZ stands for the brand name. Hashtags are not compulsory; a clear sentence works too.
| Arrangement | Disclose? | English wording | French wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid post or campaign | Yes, in the caption and inside any video | #ad, #sponsored or #XYZPartner; #ad on its own is the guidelines' gold standard | #pub, #commandite or #XYZ_partenaire |
| Free product with no obligation to post | Yes, if you post about it, even in an unboxing | #Gifted, #GiftedProduct or “Thanks XYZ for the free product” | #Cadeau or #Produitoffert |
| Event invitation without travel or accommodation | Yes | #InvitedGuest or “thanks to XYZ for inviting me” | #Invité |
| Trip, hotel stay or other travel paid by the brand | Yes, and an invitation tag alone is not enough | Say plainly who paid for the trip or the stay | The same explanation, written in French |
| Affiliate link, referral link or commission code | Yes, on every post and page with links, not only in your bio | #affiliate, #AffiliateLink, #CommissionEarned, or a sentence saying you earn commission | #Affilié, #Lienaffilié or #CommissionPerçue |
| Ambassador or long-term partner | Yes, including posts beyond the contracted ones | #XYZAmbassador | #XYZ_ambassadeur |
| Employee of the brand | Yes | #XYZEmployee | #XYZEmployé |
| AI-generated influencer promoting a brand | Yes, the connection plus, as best practice, the fact it is virtual | #VirtualInfluencer, #AIinfluencer or #AIcreated | #Influenceurvirtuel, #InfluenceurgénéréparIA or #CrééparIA |
| AI-generated or heavily AI-edited image of product results | Yes, because it affects how truthful the endorsement is | #MadeWithAI or #AIcreated | #GénéréeparIA or #CrééeparIA |
| Public event information sent to you, with nothing else given | No, the guidelines say no material connection arises | None needed | Aucune divulgation requise |
Watch one inconsistency. The affiliate page of the English guidelines recommends #affiliate-style tags, while its static-post page tells influencers sharing affiliate content not to use #ad and to use #CompanyPartner or #CompanyAffiliate instead. Both point the same way: say that you are an affiliate, not merely that the post is an ad.
The guidelines also list wording that fails: #Ambassador, #Partner, #Spon, #PR, #Promo, #PRHaul, #Brand and #Collab in English, and #Ambassadeur, #Partenaire, #Comm, #RP, #Promo, #RPhaul, #Marque and #Collab in French. A bare “thank you” to a brand, “c/o”, a disclosure merged into a brand hashtag, a misspelled tag and a blanket statement in your bio are all treated as unclear.
Placement rules by format
- Feed posts. Put the disclosure in the main message, before any run of hashtags or mentions, and name the brand.
- Videos. Disclose at the start, by voice or on screen, within the first 30 seconds, with repeats in long videos and the caption covering it too. A caption alone is not enough when the video triggers the duty.
- Stories. Disclose at the start of a series meant to be watched together, and on every story posted on its own.
- Short posts on X or Threads. #ad or #sponsored in every post of a thread, because each can be read alone.
- Blogs and newsletters. Write the connection out before the first link.
- Sound-off viewing. Facebook and Instagram videos often autoplay muted, so add a visual disclosure inside the video as well as one in the caption.
Platform tools help but do not end the job. The guidelines recommend the paid-partnership feature where it exists and say extra wording is unnecessary only if the tool's label is prominent and clear on every device; otherwise, add your own. Instructions are in our guides to the Instagram paid partnership label and TikTok's disclosure setting.
French-language posts and Quebec
The guidelines say to disclose in whatever language the endorsement is made: French content gets French disclosure, English gets English, and a bilingual post should carry both. Quebec adds two points beyond labels. The Office de la protection du consommateur says Quebec's Consumer Protection Act prohibits commercial advertising targeting children under 13, so a sponsored post aimed at young children can be unlawful there however well it is labelled. It also notes that the Charter of the French language gives consumers the right to be informed in French, with the Office québécois de la langue française enforcing it. If a Quebec brand briefs you, ask how it handles both.
Elsewhere in Canada, Ad Standards treats children as a special audience: if many of your followers are young, disclosures should be attention-grabbing and explained in age-appropriate language.
What happens when disclosure is missing
Under section 74.01 of the Competition Act, a materially false or misleading representation to the public is reviewable conduct, and the Act says it is not necessary to show that anyone was actually deceived; the general impression counts as well as the literal words. Section 74.1 lets a court order the conduct to stop, require a corrective notice and impose an administrative monetary penalty on an individual of up to the greater of $750,000 for a first order, $1,000,000 for later orders, or three times the benefit gained. Applications can come from the Commissioner of Competition or from a private party granted leave. The Ad Standards guidelines note that breaches can also lead to criminal proceedings under section 52.
On the self-regulatory side, Ad Standards takes consumer complaints under the Code, and its Standards Council can consider the guidelines when deciding whether an influencer post breached the Code. The Bureau's guidance also expects reviews to reflect your actual experience, and broad performance claims need proper testing behind them.
Pre-post checklist for Canadian audiences
- Name the connection: payment, gift, discount, trip, commission, employment or relationship.
- Pick a label from the table in the language of the post, and add the second language for bilingual content.
- Put it first in the caption, before hashtags, and make sure it shows without tapping “more”.
- For video, say or show it in the first 30 seconds, and repeat it in long videos and live streams.
- Label every story frame posted on its own and every post in a thread.
- Turn on the platform's paid-partnership tool and check how the label looks on a phone.
- Keep claims to your own experience, and drop any performance claim the brand cannot back with testing.
- Disclose AI-made personas and AI-made images of results, and never let an AI persona praise something it cannot experience.
- If your audience includes Quebec children under 13, check with the brand before running a sponsored post at all.
- File the contract, brief and final post together, because responsibility is shared and you may be asked what was agreed.
How Canada compares with other markets
Labels do not travel neatly. Canada accepts #sponsored and #affiliate-style tags, while New Zealand's regulator advises influencers not to use #sponsored at all, as explained in our guide to influencer ad rules in New Zealand. If your audience spans countries, meet the strictest rule that applies: see our guides to FTC disclosure in the US, ASA rules in the UK and Australian disclosure rules. Alcohol, gambling and vaping deals carry extra category rules on top of disclosure, covered in our guide to restricted-product sponsorships, and AI personas are covered in our AI influencer disclosure guide.
Limitations of this guide
This is general information, not legal advice. The Ad Standards guidelines are industry best practice and say themselves that following them does not ensure compliance with the Code or the Competition Act. Sector rules for areas such as health products, alcohol, cannabis and financial services add requirements this page does not cover, and Quebec's consumer and language laws have detail beyond the two points above. Penalty figures are statutory maximums, not typical outcomes. For a specific campaign, especially one aimed at Quebec or at young audiences, check with a Canadian lawyer.