Influencer and YouTuber Nathan Vandergunst, better known as "Acid" - pronounce "A-Sid" - has been fined 80,000 euros for not putting his address on social media. The influencer took to his YouTube channel to explain in a video what was up. Listing your company details is mandatory in Belgium, but many influencers are keen to ignore this. Often, they would be obliged to list their private address, where they live.
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Influencer and YouTuber Acid gets €80,000 fine for not posting his address online
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"I got an email from the Economic Inspectorate with an official report and a cover letter," Acid explains in the video. He claims he is being taken to task for not providing his business address on his social media. In his case, his business address is also his private address. Vandergunst refuses to disclose it on his social media profile pages alleging it is dangerous "for the safety of the people in the house and for myself. People are already at my door sometimes."
The case has been dragging on for a while. Last year, several influencers received a warning about not posting their address on their social media. Like other individuals who advertise or express strong opinions on their social media, the government considers them to be an online service. In other words, they are a business and therefore have to follow the guidelines.
Among other things, these guidelines state that businesses must have a company number and share it on their social media and/or websites along with their company address. This makes it easier for authorities, as well as customers, to identify and contact them. The intention is to protect consumers, but for influencers it raises specific security and privacy questions. Not infrequently, their business address is the same as their private address.
Acid and other influencers publicly complained last year saying that they did not want to share their private address. Consumer Protection Minister Eva De Bleeker (Flemish liberal/Open VLD) then worked out an interim solution that meant influencers did not have to disclose their private address after all. For instance, she suggested that influencers could band together and designate a shared physical location. This could then be used as an address, instead of the home address.
But that does not seem to be a solution says Vandergunst. A business address at a shared physical location is only valid if entrepreneurs actually carry out activities there. A purely virtual address or a PO Box address is not allowed, the Economic Inspectorate has informed him.
"The address where I work is my bedroom. Why should I rent other premises to do it from there? I have no intention of doing this," he says on YouTube. "People are going to think this means I want to evade taxes. I pay more taxes than those who write all those comments on newspaper articles. I just don't want to put my private address on YouTube, Twitter or Twitch. I’m not paying the fine."