{"id":23318,"date":"2025-08-26T01:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/23318\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T01:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:31:12","slug":"watchdog-calls-out-celebrity-chef-donal-skehan-for-failing-to-flag-paid-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/23318\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog calls out celebrity chef Donal Skehan for failing to flag paid social media posts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Warning issued after Consumer Protection Commission reviewed his Instagram account<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) issued a compliance notice to the chef on July 28,<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">They highlighted three posts where Skehan promoted goods or events marketed by Wind Shore Goods \u2013 which sells such products as olive oil and crockery, as well a running events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Officials said the posts contravened rules aimed at making it explicit when posts are paid promotions, including clear and appropriate disclosure labels<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The formal notification included instructions to retrospectively update \u00adolder content where appropriate, and also directed him to ensure that in all futures instances he would make it clear when a promotion is a paid promotion, including his \u201cown brand\u201d products and services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The notice warns that Skehan\u2019s social media channels will be the subject of further inspection by the CCPC to ensure adherence to the directions. The notification is open to appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Dubliner Skehan (39) could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Meanwhile, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has signed a new deal with consumer protection regulators to clamp down on social media influencers producing false or misleading content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The new data-sharing agreement with the Advertising Standards Authority came into effect last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">This agreement will allow for the ASA to share information where it suspects a possible breach to the CCPC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The ASA will now have the jurisdiction to report information through a portal to the CCPC giving it greater access to investigate potential breaches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It said social media influencers should avoid misleading consumers through unfair practices such as hidden or mislabelled advertising, or they could breach consumer protection law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cThis year we issued our first compliance notices against two prominent influencers,\u201d Patrick Kenny, commission member at the CCPC, said. \u201cWe continue to monitor this sector closely and will act where we see breaches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">A social media post may still breach consumer protection law even if it is properly labelled. It depends on whether the content is false or misleading.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Mr Kenny added: \u201cConsumer law protects consumers when engaging with the commercial content posted by online influencers. With the ASA, we have produced guidance for influencers to help them follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Their guide is aimed at addressing paid promotion, items \u201cgifted\u201d by brands or PR agencies, and the advertising of own-brand products and services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The ASA\u2019s code of practice requires that it is made clear when online content is for marketing purposes. It will then review complaints from any person or body who considers certain content to be marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning issued after Consumer Protection Commission reviewed his Instagram account The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) issued&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[19770,18,117,19,17,6561,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-23318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-donal-skehan","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-rory-mcginn","14":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}