Kazakhstan | Labeling online ads in Kazakhstan: what businesses and influencers need to know

With the rise of social media and blogging, online advertising has become one of the main channels for promoting goods and services. At the same time, the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan has established clear rules for labeling such content—requirements that are important for both advertisers and influencers to be aware of.

What Counts as Online Advertising

Online advertising is defined as advertising on online platforms—websites, apps, and messaging apps—that is placed, distributed, or stored by users or the owners of such platforms in the form of targeted ads, sponsored content, or other information directed at an unspecified audience. The law also specifically defines an influencer (blogger) as a user of an online platform who publishes information to a broad audience for business purposes.

When Advertising Must Be Labeled

Online advertisements posted by bloggers on a commercial or contractual basis are subject to disclosure requirements. The law is based on a broad interpretation of “contractual nature”: it is presumed to exist if the blogger is a partner or shareholder of the advertiser, receives exclusive terms for using a product or service, or publishes links to the advertiser’s promotions, discounts, or resources. This list of criteria is open-ended; therefore, in practice, any content created in agreement with a brand—including barter arrangements, free products, or affiliate links—is considered advertising and must be labeled as such.

How is the labeling done?

The label must be in text form and easily recognizable to the user, without requiring the user to expand the post by clicking the “More” button. For audio and video content, the label must appear immediately before the start of the advertisement. The law provides an exhaustive list of permissible phrases, including “advertisement,” “advertising material,” “partner content,” “sponsored content,” “for advertising purposes,” “paid for by a sponsor,” and their Kazakh-language equivalents.

What Does Not Need to Be Labeled

Three categories are exempt from the rules: advertising in messaging apps (instant messaging services); television and radio programs posted on TV channels’ accounts on online platforms; and public service announcements aimed at charitable and other socially beneficial causes.

A separate procedure applies to targeted advertising: if a business launches an advertising campaign through a platform’s advertising dashboard (Instagram, Facebook, Google Ads, VKontakte, and similar services), the platform automatically labels the content itself. In this case, the advertiser is not required to label anything additionally.

What about self-promotion?

The law does not contain an explicit exemption for a company’s advertising of its own products, but in practice, a distinction is made. Posts about a company’s own products on its corporate website technically fall under the definition of advertising; however, the labeling rules are primarily aimed at advertising through intermediaries and third-party platforms, and the audience is already aware of the commercial nature of such a resource. A similar logic applies to a company’s official social media accounts: since followers have chosen to follow the brand and understand the commercial nature of the posts, the regulator does not require mandatory labeling, although it remains a recommended practice, especially for sponsored and native content.

An important point to note: if a company pays to promote a post through its own account as part of targeted advertising on a third-party platform, the disclosure is made automatically. If, however, the post is prepared by a guest blogger, the responsibility to disclose the content falls on the blogger as the distributor of the advertisement.

Conclusion

The rules for labeling online advertising in Kazakhstan are based on the principle of transparency: users must be able to recognize when they are viewing commercial content. For businesses, this means clearly stipulating the labeling obligation in contracts with bloggers, and for influencers, it means carefully considering any collaboration with brands, even if it is limited to barter or a free product.

Regulatory documents:

Rules for Online Disclosure, approved by Order No. 59-NQ of the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated February 16, 2024;

Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Online Platforms and Online Advertising” dated July 10, 2023.