The Assembly has passed a bill regulating the status of influencers, including those in the crypto sector. The text reserves the use of these influencers to only holders of PSAN approval.
Indeed, the proposed law by deputies Arthur Delaporte, socialist deputy of Calvados, and Stéphane Vojetta, Renaissance deputy of the French abroad, had been agitating the French crypto ecosystem for several months already.
Intended to regulate the activity of influencers, it was voted this week in the National Assembly. Its purpose for its co-rapporteurs: “to fight against the scams and abuses of influencers on social networks“.
The proposed law has sparked controversy in France, with many influencers saying it would violate their freedom of speech.
No PSAN, no promotions?
In practical terms, this means that crypto influencers will no longer be able to talk about the industry when they make sponsored content on behalf of crypto companies. The activity of NFT (non-fungible tokens) is discarded by the text adopted by the deputies.
Indeed, the law purely and simply prohibits the use of influencers for any actor who does not have a PSAN approval issued by the AMF. This amounts to a ban on the promotion of cryptocurrencies or companies in the sector.
Indeed, no company has the approval, which will certainly become mandatory with the entry into force of MiCA. France totals nearly a hundred PSAN-registered companies. Despite the calls, the deputies did not want to extend the possibility of using influencers to registration.
“If strengthening the supervision of abuses and scams on social networks is necessary, this ban goes against the objective of this bill: to protect users by providing them with complete, fair and accurate information,” said Adan on Twitter.
Overall, the debate over the proposed law highlights the challenges governments face in regulating cryptos.
