How do I word ad and affiliate disclosures in Germany? Templates to copy

The duty behind this is in § 5a(4) UWG (German Unfair Competition Act): it is unfair not to make the commercial purpose of a business practice clear if it is not obvious from the circumstances and leaving it out could lead people to a business decision, such as a purchase, that they would not otherwise have made. If you post in favour of another company, it is presumed that you get something in return, unless you can credibly show you did not. If you bought the product yourself, the receipt can help with that. § 22(1) MStV (Interstate Media Treaty) and § 6(1) DDG (German Digital Services Act) require advertising to be clearly recognisable as such. The wording in the table comes from the guide by Germany’s state media authorities (die Medienanstalten), as of May 2025.

Even a product sent to you can count as something in return under the guide, without anything being agreed. If it means your motivation for the post is not fully independent, the post is advertising. The €100 threshold per brand only applies to product placement in videos and podcasts, where the product just appears in passing.

The asterisk makes the affiliate link itself transparent. If the post recommends the products your links lead to, the whole post can be advertising: among the signs of advertising intent, the media authorities name urging people to buy, stating prices and where to buy, and combining a post with affiliate links. That is why the caption templates below use both, “Werbung” at the start and the asterisk at the link.

Replace everything in square brackets. “Werbung” goes right at the front so it shows in the shortened preview without anyone tapping “more”. Besides “Werbung”, the guide accepts “Anzeige” or “bezahlte Werbepartnerschaft” (paid partnership) placed in front. Under the guide, a platform’s own ad label is enough on its own only if it uses one of these words and is otherwise easy to recognise. The guide (section 2.1) treats a link to an online shop placed out of commercial interest as advertising, and we read your bio link to a storefront with affiliate links the same way. That is why the bio template has “Anzeige” and the asterisk with its explanation. If your platform has a separate field for the bio link, put both in the last lines of your bio text, right above it. Only write “at no extra cost to you” if that is true for the shops you link to.

Name the brand you are advertising for: under § 6(1) no. 2 DDG, it must be clear on whose behalf the advertising is made. A discount code needs its terms, which under § 6(1) no. 3 DDG must be easy to find and stated clearly. For an image post without text, the guide calls for a clearly visible label in the image itself.

For your own brand or merch, the guide uses two tests. The matrix asks if the post makes it clear that the brand is yours; the explanatory notes ask if your channel is clearly commercial, such as a company channel or an online shop. If neither applies, you label the post as advertising. The template below names the brand as yours and still puts “Werbung” at the start. For your own book, album or tour, the media authorities usually see no need for a label, but they do for a product made in collaboration with a brand (“product by X”).

For videos and podcasts, the guide applies the advertising rules for broadcasting. If the product is the focus, “Werbung” stays on screen for the whole video or ad segment: large enough, in a clearly visible colour and not covered by the progress bar or buttons. Check it on your phone once before you upload. In stories, “Werbung” goes on every slide that belongs to the ad.

A sponsor mention at the start is only enough as long as it names the brand without urging people to buy. The guide sets no fixed wording for it, so the sponsor template below is a suggestion. If you present products, say where to buy them or give a discount code, that part is an ad. A product placement also turns into advertising as soon as you show a discount code in the video.

Under the guide, a sponsored blog post is labelled at the start, above or directly below the headline, and the teaser on the overview page must already show that an ad follows. The guide does not deal with newsletters as such. For advertising by email, § 6(2) DDG prohibits disguising or concealing the sender or the commercial nature of the message in the header or subject line. The newsletter templates therefore apply the rules for text to the email.

The Amazon sentence is required by the Amazon.de Associates Program Operating Agreement (updated 15 October 2025, section 5) from everyone who takes part in the programme themselves: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases”, in German “Als Amazon-Partner verdiene ich an qualifizierten Verkäufen”, or a substantially similar statement previously allowed under the agreement, shown clearly and prominently. Under the same section, you make no other public statements about your participation without Amazon’s advance written permission unless the law requires them, and you do not suggest that Amazon supports, sponsors or endorses you.

• Abbreviations such as “ad” or “AZ”.
• Wording in other languages such as “sponsored by” or “PR sample”.
• Unclear coinages such as “Advertorial” or “Infomercial”.
• A label that only shows up after scrolling or expanding, for example behind “more”.
• A general line in your bio such as “this account contains ads” instead of labelling each post.
• An on-screen label covered by buttons or the progress bar.
• “Unpaid ad” or “ad because a brand is mentioned” on posts with no advertising intent: the media authorities advise against this, because labels otherwise lose their effect.
• An affiliate disclosure only at the very bottom, far from the links: it belongs right next to the link.

On wyrld, you paste the link to a product. wyrld works out the brand, name and variant, looks for the same item across over 90,000 partner shops and automatically creates an affiliate link for each offer it finds; you do not have to join a network yourself. A single link in your bio leads to your whole storefront, so the label sits next to that one link rather than next to a list of separate links. Depending on the shop, you are paid per click, per sale or both. Something like this works: “Anzeige: Mein Shop*” with “*Affiliate-Links: Ich verdiene je nach Shop an Klicks oder Käufen, dein Preis bleibt gleich.” below it (“I earn from clicks or purchases depending on the shop, at no extra cost to you.”)

The part about the price fits, because buying through wyrld costs no more than buying from the shop directly. Where wyrld finds a product at several partner shops, your community sees the offers side by side with prices and buys from the shop it prefers. You also label posts in which you recommend products with these links as advertising; under the wyrld creator terms, that is your responsibility. The creator guide also shows what this looks like in stories and reels.

The wyrld creator terms do not require exclusivity, so your wyrld storefront can be one of several links in your bio, next to programmes you already use. The affiliate links from each programme then get their asterisk, and if you are an Amazon Associate yourself, the Amazon sentence goes with your Amazon links as well. Brands can also pay for campaigns through wyrld Boost that run across many creators; payouts follow key figures (KPIs) agreed in advance. You decide for yourself if you join one. A post from such a campaign is a paid collaboration and gets “Werbung” at the start, with the brand named, as in the templates above.