Korea influencer regulations put the legal exposure on the advertiser. The Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising makes a brand liable for a creator’s undisclosed or false endorsement, with surcharges of up to 2 percent of related revenue and criminal penalties of up to two years, and sector laws for food, cosmetics and medical services add their own prohibitions. The creator contract is where a foreign brand manages that exposure.
Where the disclosure label goes, and how the December 2024 and June 2026 amendments changed it, is covered in the guide to Korean influencer marketing. This piece covers the layer above the label: which laws apply, who is liable, how the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) enforces, and what a foreign brand’s creator contract has to carry. Inquivix covers campaign execution in its guide to running an influencer marketing campaign in Korea.
What Do Korea’s Influencer Regulations Cover?
One general statute sets the baseline, and sector statutes stack on top of it.
The Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising (표시광고법) is the general rule. Article 3(1) prohibits false or exaggerated, deceptive, unfairly comparative and disparaging advertising, and it bars a business from causing another business to do any of those things (law.go.kr, version in force from 21 January 2025). The KFTC’s recommendation and endorsement review guideline applies that prohibition to creator content. Its separate deceptive advertising review guideline, revised and announced on 30 October 2025, now lists concealment of a paid benefit behind a recommendation as a named type of deceptive advertising, including a brand running its own social account as if a third party were recommending the product (KFTC press release, 30 October 2025).
Sector statutes apply regardless of disclosure. A correctly labeled post can still break them.
- Food and health functional food. Article 8 of the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods prohibits advertising that suggests a food prevents or treats disease, presents it as a medicine, or presents an ordinary food as a health functional food, among ten prohibited types. Article 10 requires prior review by a registered self-regulatory body for designated categories: special nutritional foods such as infant foods, foods for special medical purposes, health functional foods, and foods carrying functional claims (Enforcement Rule Article 10) (law.go.kr, version in force from 19 September 2025).
- Cosmetics. Article 13 of the Cosmetics Act prohibits advertising that could be mistaken for a medicine or that presents an ordinary cosmetic as a functional cosmetic (law.go.kr, version in force from 2 April 2026). Its Enforcement Rule (Annex 5) also bars advertising that says or implies a doctor, dentist, Korean medicine doctor, pharmacist, medical institution or other medical expert designated, endorsed, recommended, developed or uses the product, which rules out most doctor-creator endorsements of cosmetics.
- Medical services. Article 56 of the Medical Service Act bars anyone other than a medical institution or medical professional from advertising medical services, and bars patient treatment testimonials and advertising that skipped the required prior review (law.go.kr, version in force from 7 April 2026).
- Medical devices. Article 24(2) of the Medical Devices Act bars anyone from false or exaggerated device advertising, from advertising that implies a doctor or other professional endorses or uses the device, and from advertising that skipped the self-regulatory review Article 25 requires for designated media, including prescribed internet media (law.go.kr, version in force from 1 July 2026).
- Medicines. Article 68 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act bars false or exaggerated advertising of medicines (의약품등), content suggesting a doctor or other professional vouches for them, and advertising prescription medicines to the public (law.go.kr).
- Financial products. Article 22 of the Financial Consumer Protection Act bars anyone other than a financial product seller or adviser, or a listed industry association, from advertising financial products, with an administrative fine of up to KRW 100 million under Article 69 (law.go.kr, version in force from 2 January 2026). Inquivix covers the sector in its guide to financial advertising regulations in Korea.
The food statute addresses its prohibitions to 누구든지 (“anyone”), so a creator’s own claim that a supplement treats a condition puts the creator inside the statute alongside the brand.
Who Is Liable When a Creator Gets It Wrong?
The brand, first. Article 10 of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising makes the business liable in damages to anyone harmed by unfair advertising and removes the defense that it acted without intent or negligence. Article 3’s “cause another business to do” language reaches the advertiser that briefed and paid the creator.
The KFTC’s first Instagram case shows how that lands. On 25 November 2019 it sanctioned seven advertisers in cosmetics, small appliances and diet supplements for 4,177 posts that did not disclose payment, with corrective orders and surcharges totaling KRW 269 million (Kim & Chang, 2020). The advertisers named in reporting included Dyson Korea and LVMH Cosmetics, which puts foreign brands’ Korean subsidiaries squarely in scope. Where a foreign brand has no Korean entity, the Korean importer, distributor or agency that commissions the posts is the business the Act reaches.
The agency, in the recent cases. On 24 July 2024 the KFTC sanctioned two advertising agencies that had organized endorsement content at volume. Flow Marketing had, over roughly three years, recruited influencers to post agency-written copy as first-hand reviews in 2,653 posts for 88 advertisers, and Market-it had placed 3,944 Instagram posts for 267 advertisers without clear disclosure. The KFTC ordered correction and publication against both, with a KRW 1 million surcharge on Flow Marketing, and stressed that it had sanctioned the agencies on their own (KFTC announcement of 24 July 2024, reported by Newsis). The September 2025 decision against the agency 네오프, covered in the guide to Naver blogger outreach and cheheomdan, followed the same line.
The creator carries exposure in narrower ways, mainly through the sector statutes that address anyone who makes the claim, and through the KFTC’s correction requests, which go to both the poster and the advertiser.
What Penalties Do Korea’s Influencer Regulations Carry?
The statutory ceilings are set out below, from the versions of each Act on law.go.kr cited above. Administrative sanctions are shown only where the Act ties them to the advertising breach.
| Law | Administrative ceiling | Criminal ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising | Stop order, publication of the order, corrective advertising (Art. 7); surcharge up to 2% of related revenue, or KRW 500 million where revenue cannot be calculated (Art. 9) | Up to 2 years imprisonment or KRW 150 million (Art. 17) |
| Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods | Business suspension of up to 6 months, or cancellation of the licence or registration, for Article 8 breaches (Art. 16) | Disease, medicine or functional-food claims: up to 10 years or KRW 100 million, or both (Art. 26); false, deceptive or unreviewed advertising: up to 5 years or KRW 50 million, or both (Art. 27) |
| Cosmetics Act | Registration cancellation, a ban on making, importing or selling the product, or suspension of all or part of the business for up to 1 year, for Article 13 breaches (Art. 24) | Article 13 breaches: up to 1 year or KRW 10 million (Art. 37) |
| Medical Service Act | Not shown | Article 56 breaches: up to 1 year or KRW 10 million (Art. 89) |
| Medical Devices Act | Licence cancellation, closure, a ban on making, importing or selling the product, or suspension of all or part of the business for up to 1 year, for Article 24(2) breaches (Art. 36) | Article 24(2) breaches: up to 3 years or KRW 30 million (Art. 52) |
The surcharges in actual cases have been modest. The 2019 total averages under KRW 40 million per advertiser, and the 2024 agency surcharge was KRW 1 million. The heavier costs are the published order carrying the company’s name, the takedown and reshoot of a campaign, and for food, medical and medical device claims, a criminal ceiling that no surcharge calculation captures.
How Closely Do Korean Regulators Monitor Creator Content?
Every year, at volume. Since 2021 the KFTC has checked review-format posts on Instagram, Naver Blog and YouTube each year, for 2024 through the Korea Internet Advertising Foundation. In 2024 it found 22,011 posts suspected of undisclosed advertising and asked the creators and advertisers to correct them voluntarily, with the share of short-form video rising sharply as its short-form checks intensified (KFTC, announced 16 March 2025, via the KDI Economic Information and Education Center).
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (식약처) watches the food and cosmetics side. In a special inspection of 84 influencer accounts selling food and cosmetics on social media, it found false or exaggerated advertising and other violations on 54, most often disease-treatment claims such as atopy relief and hair-loss prevention on ordinary food, and it requested deletion or blocking of the posts and referred cases for administrative action and investigation (YTN, 20 April 2023). Those findings run under the sector statutes, on a separate track from the KFTC’s correction requests.
Most KFTC detections end in a correction request. The cases that go further share a profile across 2019, 2024 and 2025: organized volume in the thousands of posts and, in the agency cases, copy written by the agency and presented as personal experience or briefs that told creators to hide the payment. A foreign brand’s exposure grows with the number of posts it never sees, which is the argument for the contract controls below.
What Must a Foreign Brand’s Creator Contract Carry?
The pillar lists the commercial clauses: disclosure wording, usage rights, exclusivity, approval rounds and takedown. The liability layer needs six more.
- A compliance warranty tied to named rules. The creator warrants disclosure under the KFTC endorsement guideline as amended, and warrants making no product claims beyond an approved list. Reference the guideline as amended from time to time, so the warranty follows the next amendment without renegotiation.
- An approved claims sheet. The brand supplies the only product claims the creator may make, cleared in advance against the sector statute. Every factual claim on the sheet is backed by substantiation the brand can produce on request: Article 5 of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising requires an advertiser to be able to substantiate the factual matters in its advertising, and to submit that material within 15 days when the KFTC asks. For the designated food categories and for medical devices, confirm with counsel whether the creator content needs self-regulatory review before it runs (food statute Article 10, Medical Devices Act Article 25).
- A first-hand use requirement. The creator uses the product before posting and writes in their own words. Agency-written copy posted as experience was the Flow Marketing violation.
- Correction on notice within a stated window. A KFTC correction request or a brand notice triggers an edit or takedown within a set number of hours, with payment withheld until it is done.
- Agency flow-down and audit rights. Where an agency or platform recruits the creators, the same obligations pass down in writing, and the brand gets access to every live post and every brief. Two of the three KFTC cases above were agency cases.
- Tax on the fee. A Korean individual creator paid for recurring content is usually paid as business income, with 3 percent withheld under Income Tax Act Article 129 plus local income tax at one tenth of that, 3.3 percent in total. A creator registered as a VAT-taxable sole proprietor issues a tax invoice with 10 percent VAT instead, and no withholding applies. Withholding runs through a Korean payer. A foreign brand paying from abroad leaves the creator to report the income directly, so the Korean subsidiary or agency is the cleaner contracting party. The contract should state who withholds and on which amount.
An indemnity from the creator belongs in the contract as well. It rarely covers much in practice, because a surcharge or published order lands on the brand whatever the contract says, so the brand’s working protection is the monitoring these clauses make possible.
Where Do Foreign Brands Usually Get Caught?
Four patterns recur in the enforcement record and in the sector statutes.
Global claims imported into Korean briefs. Efficacy language cleared in another market can be a medicine-like or functional claim under the Cosmetics Act, a disease claim under the food statute, or a doctor endorsement the cosmetics rules bar, before any disclosure question arises.
Agency volume without visibility. A brand paying an agency for hundreds of posts, with no list of posts and no copy of the brief, carries the 2024 cases’ risk profile.
Brand-owned accounts posing as third parties. The October 2025 deceptive advertising guideline names this directly.
Medical and clinic promotion through creators. Article 56 limits who may advertise medical services at all, which rules out most creator formats for clinics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is liable for undisclosed influencer advertising in Korea? The advertiser carries the primary liability. The Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising prohibits a business from causing another to advertise unfairly, and Article 10 makes it liable in damages without proof of intent or negligence. The KFTC sanctioned seven advertisers over 4,177 undisclosed Instagram posts in 2019, and in July 2024 it sanctioned two agencies on their own. Creators face correction requests and sector-law exposure.
What are the penalties for undisclosed influencer ads in Korea? Under the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising, the KFTC can order the ad stopped, require publication of the order and corrective advertising, and impose a surcharge of up to 2 percent of related revenue, or KRW 500 million where revenue cannot be calculated. Criminal penalties reach two years imprisonment or KRW 150 million. Food, cosmetics, medical and medical device statutes add their own penalties.
Do Korea influencer regulations apply to foreign brands? Yes. The rules apply to advertising aimed at Korean consumers regardless of where the brand is headquartered, and the KFTC’s 2019 Instagram case included the Korean operations of Dyson and LVMH’s cosmetics business among the seven advertisers sanctioned. Where a foreign brand has no Korean entity, the Korean importer, distributor or agency commissioning the posts is the business the Act reaches.
Does a correct #광고 label make an influencer post compliant? It satisfies the disclosure rule and nothing more. A labeled post that claims a supplement treats a disease still breaches the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods, a labeled post that presents an ordinary cosmetic as functional still breaches the Cosmetics Act, and a labeled clinic promotion by a creator can still breach the Medical Service Act.
Running Creator Programs Inside the Rules
Korea’s influencer rules are enforceable, published and specific, so compliance comes down to the contract and the monitoring behind it. Inquivix runs Korean influencer and KOL programs end to end for international brands as part of its market entry and digital growth work. To pressure-test a creator program’s compliance controls before launch, write to Joon K Lee at joon@joonklee.com.
