Do affiliate links in creator posts need an ad label in India?

Affiliate posts are quietly becoming the biggest kind of creator ad in India. On 19 October, Amazon India said its Influencer Program has grown to 2 lakh creators, doubling year on year, and that creators helped close to 40 million customers shop on Amazon.in this year. About 75% of those creators are from outside the metros. Amazon has also joined YouTube's Shopping affiliate programme, so eligible creators can tag Amazon products in Shorts, long videos and livestreams and earn a commission on qualifying purchases. On Pinterest, a creator links their Amazon Storefront once and tagged Pins carry the affiliate link automatically.

That raises a question we hear from brands and creators in Delhi almost every week: if nobody paid a fee and there was no brief, does a commission post still need an ad label?

Does a commission count as a paid partnership under ASCI?

In practice, yes. ASCI's influencer guidelines say a label is needed whenever there is a "material connection" between the advertiser and the creator. The definition covers monetary or other compensation, free products with or without conditions, discounts, gifts, trips, barters and even family or employment ties. A commission on every sale is monetary compensation.

The guidelines do not use the words "affiliate link" in that definition. But "Affiliate" appears in ASCI's own list of acceptable labels, alongside "Ad", "Advertisement", "Sponsored", "Collaboration", "Partnership", "Free gift" and the platform tags such as Instagram's "Paid Partnership" and YouTube's "Includes Paid Promotion". ASCI would hardly list a label for a case it did not expect to be disclosed.

One more point people miss: ASCI says disclosure is needed even if the creator's opinion is honest and unbiased. The test is the connection, not the tone.

Where does the label have to go?

ASCI wants it upfront and prominent, in its words so that it "is not missed by an average consumer." That rules out a line at the end of a caption, a label hidden behind "more", a tag lost in a wall of hashtags, or a note only in the bio. For formats without text, such as Stories, the label must be superimposed on the picture or video. For video, ASCI sets a minimum on-screen time that grows with length: at least 3 seconds for clips of 15 seconds or less, a third of the running time for videos under 2 minutes, and the whole segment where the brand is discussed in longer videos. Livestreams and audio need a spoken disclosure at the start and end.

Affiliate links sit in a grey zone here. A shoppable product tag on YouTube shows that something is for sale, but it does not tell viewers the creator earns from it. Our reading is that a tag alone is not enough; a spoken or on-screen "affiliate" or "ad" line is the safe route.

What does the government say?

The Department of Consumer Affairs issued its own "Endorsement Know-hows!" guidelines on 20 January 2023. They cover celebrities, influencers and virtual influencers, list the same kinds of benefits as triggers (money, gifts, free products, discounts, trips) and ask for terms like "advertisement", "sponsored" or "paid promotion" that are hard to miss. As The Leaflet explained at the time, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 lets the Central Consumer Protection Authority fine advertisers and endorsers up to ₹10 lakh for misleading ads, up to ₹50 lakh for repeat offences, and bar an endorser for up to a year, or three years for each repeat.

Is the brand on the hook too?

Yes. ASCI says advertiser and creator share responsibility. Where the brand has a material connection, it must make sure the post follows the code and, if needed, ask the creator to edit the label or take the post down. A brand that runs an open affiliate programme cannot assume every creator will get this right on their own.

Our take from Delhi

Affiliate is the easiest way for a small Delhi brand to work with dozens of micro creators at once, and that scale is exactly why labelling slips. If you run a commission programme, put the label rule in your onboarding note and the creator agreement, give creators a ready line to say on camera, and spot-check posts every month. It costs almost nothing and is far cheaper than an ASCI complaint landing on a campaign that is working.