Guide: Impressum
Impressum for influencers: who needs one and what goes in.
As soon as your profile earns money, through collaborations, affiliate links or TikTok Shop, Germany's Impressum duty applies to you. Here is who the statute means, which details it demands, where the Impressum belongs on TikTok and Instagram, what happens without one and what you can do about your home address, each with its reference.
As of 6 November 2026 · 15 sources
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The basic rules.
Four points from the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz of 6 May 2024.
Influencers with income need an Impressum.
Anyone who offers a digital service in a business-like way, usually for payment, must keep certain details permanently available. The Medienanstalten, which supervise the Impressum duty, name an offering that contains advertising as an example of business-like. On that reading, a profile with collaborations, affiliate links or TikTok Shop income is such a service.1
Name, address, email and a way to get in touch quickly.
Required are your name and the address where you are established, plus details that allow quick electronic contact and direct communication, including your email address. If you have a USt-IdNr. or a Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer, it goes in too.2
Easily recognisable, directly reachable, permanently available.
That is how the details must be kept. The Medienanstalten name a menu item called „Impressum“ or „Kontakt“ for it. On TikTok and Instagram the link in your bio takes that role: it leads to a page that holds the Impressum.1
Without an Impressum, a fine of up to €50,000.
Anyone who intentionally or negligently fails to keep the details available, or keeps them incorrectly or incompletely, commits an administrative offence. The fine can reach €50,000. The Medienanstalten write, though, that in most cases fixing the offering is enough.3
Case by case.
Small business, private profile, Linktree, magazine-style content, advertising, Abmahnung: what else applies.
Also as a Kleingewerbe or Kleinunternehmer
The statute hinges on „geschäftsmäßig“, business-like, not on a trade registration, turnover or legal form. Being a Kleinunternehmer or running a Kleingewerbe changes nothing about the duty, only about the content: no commercial register, no USt-IdNr. if you don't have one.1
Private profile without income
The Medienstaatsvertrag exempts only offerings that serve exclusively personal or family purposes. Anything beyond that needs name and address under it, even without payment. No statute says exactly where the line is; with the first paid post or affiliate link you are usually past it.4
Linktree, Beacons, your own page
The Impressum may sit on a linked page as long as it stays easily recognisable and directly reachable from the profile. What matters is the path: profile, link, Impressum, no detours. An Impressum that only sits somewhere on your website, unlinked from the profile, is unlikely to satisfy the duty for the profile.1
Journalistic and editorial content
If you report regularly like a magazine, with news or opinion pieces, the Medienstaatsvertrag additionally demands a responsible person with name and address. For pure product and lifestyle content this usually does not apply; if in doubt, ask your Landesmedienanstalt.5
Plus: label advertising
The Impressum is one of several information duties. Commercial communication must be clearly recognisable as such, and whoever commissions it must be clearly identifiable. How to do that on the platforms is in the Medienanstalten's guideline on advertising labelling.6
Abmahnung: possible, competitors without cost recovery
A missing Impressum can be unfair competition as a breach of law; competitors and associations can then demand that you stop. A competitor may not, however, make you reimburse the costs of an Abmahnung over missing mandatory details in digital services. That exception does not cover associations.7
Who the duty covers, what goes in, where it belongs.
Since May 2024 the Impressum duty sits in the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG); older guides still cite it as § 5 TMG, which today means § 5 DDG. It covers „Diensteanbieter“, anyone offering a digital service (§ 1 Abs. 4 Nr. 5 DDG), as soon as the service is offered in a business-like way and usually for payment (§ 5 Abs. 1 DDG). The statute speaks of digital services, not websites; that your profile lives on TikTok or Instagram rather than your own domain does not take it out. Applying this to a creator profile with collaborations, affiliate links or TikTok Shop is a conclusion from the statute's text, not an explicit rule for creators; the Medienanstalten, which supervise the duty, expressly count an offering with advertising as business-like.
The Impressum holds your full name and the address where you are established, plus details that allow quick electronic contact and direct communication, including your email address (§ 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 und 2 DDG). Whether a second channel besides email is needed is not in the statute but has been settled by the courts; many add a phone number or a contact form. If you have a USt-IdNr. or a Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer, you state it (§ 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 DDG); your Steuernummer does not go in. A commercial register entry is added if there is one (Nr. 4), and a GmbH or UG also states its legal form and representatives (Nr. 1). As an individual without a register entry it stays at name, address, email and a contact channel: you hardly need a template, four lines are enough if they are right.
The details must be easily recognisable, directly reachable and permanently available (§ 5 Abs. 1 DDG). The Medienanstalten name the menu item „Impressum“ or „Kontakt“. TikTok and Instagram have no menu, but they have the link in the bio: it should lead to the details in a few clicks, and the path should be visible, say „Impressum“ in the link text or as its own item on your link-in-bio page. How many clicks are allowed has been decided by the courts, not the statute; short and unambiguous is right in any case. An Impressum that only sits on your website, unlinked from the profile, does not help for the profile.
The statute demands the address where you are established, the Medienanstalten the full address. A PO box is not a place where anyone is established. For many creators that means the home address, and that should not be public. Under discussion are an office or coworking desk where you actually work, and address services that forward mail to you (c/o). Whether such an address suffices is not settled by any statute but by the courts; at its core it is about whether mail and legal service reliably reach you there. Have a lawyer check it before you publish. A made-up address, or your parents' without their knowledge, is no solution.
If the Impressum is missing or incomplete, that is an administrative offence with a fine of up to €50,000 (§ 33 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 und Abs. 6 Nr. 3 DDG). The Medienanstalten supervise the duty, take reports and write themselves that in most cases fixing the offering is enough. Competition law comes on top: breaching a rule that governs market conduct can be unfair (§ 3a UWG), and competitors as well as associations can demand that you stop (§ 8 Abs. 1 und 3 UWG). A competitor may not, however, charge you the costs of an Abmahnung over missing mandatory details in digital services (§ 13 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 UWG); that exception does not cover associations.
Affliq builds you a page of your own under your handle, with links, discount codes and products, and writes the Impressum and privacy policy from your legal profile into it; both go live with the page. You put the link in every bio, on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, even if you have no other website; for a second channel you add a second page, up to three. You label advertising there per link. Which address appears in the Impressum is your decision: Affliq takes it from your legal profile and offers no address protection.
Affliq records and does the maths, it does not advise. How things are taxed is your tax adviser's call.
Frequently asked questions
Do influencers have to have an Impressum?
Yes, as soon as your profile is business-like, that is, contains advertising, collaborations, affiliate links or TikTok Shop sales, for example. Then § 5 DDG demands name, address and contact details. A purely private profile without any monetisation usually needs none.1
From when do I need an Impressum on TikTok?
The statute names no follower count and no turnover threshold. What matters is whether you offer the service in a business-like way: with the first paid video, the first affiliate link or joining TikTok Shop, that is usually the case.1
How do I create an Impressum for Instagram without a website?
You need a page you can link from the profile; that can be a link-in-bio page with the Impressum as its own item. The details: name, address, email and another contact channel, plus USt-IdNr. or W-IdNr. if you have one. Affliq builds you such a page with the Impressum from your legal profile.2
Is an Impressum on Linktree enough?
What counts is not the provider but the path: the Impressum must be easily recognisable and directly reachable from the profile. An item clearly labelled „Impressum“ on your link page that leads straight to the details satisfies that; a link that ends somewhere on your website is unlikely to.1
Does my home address have to go in the Impressum?
Required is the address where you are established; a PO box is not one. If you work from home, that is usually your home address. Whether an office, a coworking desk or a c/o address from an address service suffices is not settled by any statute but by the courts; clear it with a lawyer beforehand.8
Do I need an Impressum on Instagram as a Kleingewerbe or Kleinunternehmer?
Yes. The statute hinges on „geschäftsmäßig“, business-like, not on a trade registration or turnover. As a Kleinunternehmer without a USt-IdNr. you leave the number out; the rest stays the same.1
What happens if I have no Impressum?
A missing or incomplete Impressum is an administrative offence with a fine of up to €50,000. The Medienanstalten write that in most cases fixing it is enough. On top, competitors or associations can send an Abmahnung; a competitor's Abmahnung costs over missing mandatory details are not yours to reimburse.3
Where do I report an influencer without an Impressum?
To the competent Landesmedienanstalt. The Medienanstalten supervise the Impressum duty, take reports and link the list of all Landesmedienanstalten with contact details for it.9
Sources
Statutes and administrative guidance, as of 6 November 2026. Tax law changes: the current statutory text always prevails, and what applies to you is for your tax adviser to say.
- § 5 Abs. 1 DDG§ 5 DDG – Allgemeine Informationspflichten · gesetze-im-internet.de, Federal Ministry of Justice
- § 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 1, 2 und 6 DDG§ 5 DDG – Allgemeine Informationspflichten · gesetze-im-internet.de, Federal Ministry of Justice
- § 33 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 und Abs. 6 Nr. 3 DDG§ 33 DDG – Bußgeldvorschriften
- § 18 Abs. 1 MStVMedienstaatsvertrag (MStV), § 18 Informationspflichten und Auskunftsrechte · Unofficial consolidated text published by the Medienanstalten, in force since 1 December 2025
- § 18 Abs. 2 MStVMedienstaatsvertrag (MStV), § 18 Informationspflichten und Auskunftsrechte · Unofficial consolidated text published by the Medienanstalten, in force since 1 December 2025
- § 6 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 und 2 DDG§ 6 DDG – Besondere Pflichten bei kommerziellen Kommunikationen
- § 3a, § 8 Abs. 3 Nr. 1 und § 13 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 UWG§ 13 UWG – Abmahnung; Unterlassungsverpflichtung; Haftung
- § 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 DDG§ 5 DDG – Allgemeine Informationspflichten · gesetze-im-internet.de, Federal Ministry of Justice
- Die Medienanstalten, ImpressumspflichtImpressumspflicht · die medienanstalten, supervision
Further sources
- Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG) of 6 May 2024, full textBGBl. 2024 I Nr. 149, text in force from 14 May 2024
- § 1 DDG – Anwendungsbereich, Begriffsbestimmungen
- § 3a UWG – Rechtsbruch
- § 8 UWG – Beseitigung und Unterlassung
- Landesmedienanstaltendie medienanstalten, contact details of all state media authorities
- Leitfaden Werbekennzeichnung bei Online-Mediendie medienanstalten, guidance notes and guidelines
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Impressum done before the next deal arrives.
Join the list: Affliq writes your Impressum from your legal profile and puts it online with your page, for every bio.