A Queensland company has been fined nearly $140,000 for posting social media viewers featuring “random shoppers” – who were in fact employees – offering glowing reviews of its products.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued seven infringement notices to local oral and personal care company Hismile for alleged false and misleading representations in a series of videos posted to its social media pages.

Hismile has 5 million followers on TikTok and 1.7 million on Instagram.

Its products are stocked in Coles and Woolworths and have been promoted by entrepreneur Kim Kardashian.

The videos that earned the ire of the competition watchdog purported to show random shoppers in public trying Hismile’s products then giving them a positive review.

But these people were not random shoppers, but rather employees of Hismile.

Hismile has paid $138,600 in penalties over the videos and has committed to several actions to address concerns raised by the ACCC.

These include establishing a competition and consumer law compliance program, publishing a notice on its website and social media pages about the ACCC action and agreeing to never again represent any staff members as random members of the public providing a review.

“Misleading social media advertisements can reach millions of consumers and may impact their purchasing decisions,” ACCC Commissioner Luke Woodward said.

“All businesses must ensure they are not making misleading or deceptive claims on social media platforms.”

‘Manipulative or deceptive advertising’

Hismile also posted videos of its Glostik Tooth Gloss products that may have given consumers the impression that it would remove stains on their teeth, when in reality it merely concealed stains temporarily, the ACCC said.

As part of the undertaking, Hismile has admitted that these videos were, or were likely, misleading and in breach of Australian Consumer Law.

“As a result of these social media videos, consumers may have been misled into buying products that did not have the results promoted by Hismile,” Woodward said.

“The ACCC has prioritised consumer and fair-trading issues relating to manipulative or deceptive advertising in the digital economy for several years.”

Hismile has also agreed to not represent its product as producing permanent results when this is not true.

ACCC goes after influencers

It comes after Victorian company PhotobookShop earlier this year was fined nearly $40,000 for telling influencers to hide that they were paid in products to post reviews, and for editing out criticism from other reviews.

This was the first time t an Australian business had been penalised for failing to disclose an influencer was paid to produce content or a review.

PhotobookShop was issued two infringement notices and paid a penalty of $39,600.

In early 2023, ACCC announced a crackdown on influencer promotions, particularly those who fail to disclose that they were paid to promote a product or service online.

At the time, the watchdog said it was looking into more than 100 influencers that they were alerted to through tip-offs from the public.