Working with an influencer is a practice that more and more brands are betting on to reach a greater number of consumers, however, in many countries such as Mexico, most collaborations with influencers do not have legal regulation.

The lack of legal intervention has brought problems to both brands and influencers, a case of this is that of the Mexican influencer Cely Ramos, who from her social networks denounced that a department store had been making use of her image and content without the permission from her.

The case

According to the influencer, who has 53.3 thousand followers on Instagram, a brand with which she would have previously collaborated was using her content as advertising in its department stores, this without having previously requested her or that she was part of the agreement.

Faced with such a situation, Cely asked her followers on Twitter if this situation was not illegal:

Given the situation, dozens of people told him that this was not legal, because if it had been agreed that the material was for a certain format, in this case social networks, they should have offered a new contract that established the times of use or the formats in which the brand sought to use them.

The influencer claimed that the brand had been using her image as part of a window display for months, without even discovering it until an Instagram follower tagged her in a post.

What is the brand?

Hours before the influencer spoke negatively about her case, Cely Ramos shared a video from her Instagram account, where a series of videos with her image was shown on a sideboard of the Mexican brand High Street Mexico.

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The fashion brand has 10 branches in Mexico, three in Guadalajara, two in Puebla, while CDMX, Michoacán, Baja California, Oaxaca and Querétaro have one branch per state.

Although the influencer has not mentioned the name directly, the truth is that her statements were given after sharing the video on her social networks, which is why some users on Twitter have pointed to High Street Mexico as the culprit of the acts.

Likewise, the influencer pointed out that it seemed unfair to her that in her case she had no way to defend herself against such a large brand, and that she was only waiting for an email from the brand requesting an apology and the corresponding payment for using her image in department stores without her authorization. to avoid problems.

So far High Street has not commented on the matter.

The payment to the influencer

Although it is unknown if Cely Ramos was referring to her collaboration with High Street, the Mexican influencer pointed out in another tweet that she was tired of big brands paying digital personalities with free clothes and broadcasting, because at the end of the day that did not pay the bills. .

The situation shows a problem for which dozens of influencers, who, not working under legal regulation, usually accept payments in kind or, as in this case, brands can take advantage of the collaboration beyond what was agreed.

Jorge Avila, Growth Marketing Director of Creative Society, exclusively assured Merca2.0 that there is a lack of structure within the Mexican advertising world, where legal regulations are essential to improve influencer marketing strategies.

Currently, the issue is already on the table, as different social organizations such as Tec-Check seek to create the first Influencer Law, with the aim of regulating and having better transparency on how digital advertising works, which proved to have gaps.

Although influencer marketing is not something that will soon disappear, the truth is that improving agreements between brands and internet personalities, as in this case, could make both of them benefit without the need for social media intervention.

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