Premiership Rugby pundit Brian O’Driscoll under fire by Irish competition watchdog
Premiership Rugby pundit and former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll is under notice by the Irish competition watchdog over a “misleading” social media post.
The former Irish rugby star was issued a compliance notice last December over a post on his Instagram account after he failed to use “appropriate labels” to disclose the commercial nature of a post.
The post was last April when he wore Zerofit Europe apparel, but he failed to highlight it was an #Ad post. Zerofit is a Japanese sports performance brand founded in 2005 and launched in the UK and Europe in 2018.
O’Driscoll played for Leinster and for Ireland, and captained his national team from 2003 until 2012. He stepped back from playing international in 2014 when he switched over to punditry for BT Sport and ITV Sport and now TNT Sports.
O’Driscoll has over 370,000 followers on his Instagram account.
The notice appeared on the consumer protection list was published by the Competition and Consumer Protection (CCPC), the competition regulator in Ireland.
In the written notice, he was directed to “ensure that in all instances where a trader has paid you to use editorial content in the media to promote a product or service, you must make it clear that such promotion is a paid promotion”.
The CCPC notice took effect on 05 December 2024, where he was also warned that his social media channels would be “the subject of further inspection to ensure adherence to this compliance direction”.
A compliance notice directs a business or individual to remedy any breach. If that is not done, they can be fined up to €5,000 and face imprisonment, says national broadcaster RTÉ.
Additionally last year, fitness coach Caroline O’Mahony, who has over 820,000 followers on Instagram, was among the influencers contacted by the CCPC in April, found to have “engaged in a misleading commercial practice”.