Digital Market, Bloggers, and Trendsetters: The New World of Advertising Law

The importance of digital marketing is continuously growing, at least in the present economic phase. Within this sector, fashion bloggers play a crucial role, which reflects the relevance of fashion on an economic and a social level, as already highlighted in Georg Simmel’s pioneering study. New communication opportunities made available by the development of digital technologies shed more light on this phenomenon. One of the main concerns is the need to guarantee the transparency and the correctness of commercial communications shared through social media in order to ensure the consumers’ full freedom of choice. However, can traditional rules on advertising be considered sufficient, or is there a need for ad hoc rules? Can consumers’ protection be reconciled with other values such as the creative freedom of advertisers and, more generally, the freedom of expression? Thus far, interventions by self-regulatory bodies and independent authorities, both at national and international levels, have proven to be effective, even if more “classic” regulatory interventions may occur in the future. After a short reference to the literature concerning fashion as a social phenomenon, the contribution focuses on the main solutions adopted in Italy and in Europe.