Validation Institute Certifies Disclosure Facts as "Flu Shot" Against Escalating Influencer Liability for Consumer Brands

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Disclosure Facts, which builds advertising risk infrastructure for consumer brands scaling creator and influencer advertising, today announced it has received independent certification from the Validation Institute. The certification confirms that brands using Disclosure Facts can respond once to advertising scrutiny and materially reduce the likelihood that questions escalate into investigations, enforcement actions, payout freezes, or lawsuits. Validated claims are backed by the Validation Institute's $100,000 credibility guarantee.

As influencer and creator advertising has become the dominant growth channel for consumer brands, scrutiny is expected to be part of growth. When scrutiny begins, the outcome that matters most is whether a brand can immediately point to a clear, credible, and verifiable record explaining the commercial relationship behind an ad. Most brands cannot.

Following a series of concrete enforcement actions by U.S. regulators, influencer and creator advertising has moved from a compliance concern to a material litigation risk for consumer brands.

In August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced its final ban on fake endorsements, reviews, and testimonials, explicitly authorizing civil penalties exceeding $50,000 per violation. In 2025, that shift accelerated as class actions targeting influencer marketing practices began surviving early motions, with plaintiffs relying on state "Little FTC Acts" to allege economic harm arising from unclear or disputed disclosure context.

At the same time, states moved independently. In 2025, New York enacted a landmark disclosure law governing AI-generated and synthetic influencer content, further increasing scrutiny on how commercial relationships are represented to consumers.

Across these developments, one pattern became clear: when the commercial context behind influencer content is unclear, buried, or disputed, scrutiny no longer resolves at the regulatory level. It escalates into platform action, executive intervention, and increasingly, high-stakes private litigation. Disclosure Facts is designed to prevent that escalation.

Rather than responding ad by ad, brands using Disclosure Facts establish a standardized, verified system of record for commercial context at the moment ads go live. When scrutiny occurs, brands respond once with a record that remains sufficient across platforms, regulators, and legal review.

"Most approaches say, 'If you just do the content right, you'll be fine,'" said Kaeya Majmundar, Founder and CEO of Disclosure Facts. "We do the opposite. We assume the content will be questioned, so brands can show the Disclosure Facts for any influencer post under scrutiny and move on."

The certification is based on a mixed-methods evaluation combining behavioral research with modeled escalation scenarios grounded in real-world disclosure failure patterns.

Key findings certified by the Validation Institute, compared to prevailing disclosure practices, include:

• 47× lower likelihood that advertising scrutiny escalates into prolonged disputes, payout freezes, or follow-on reviews
  
  
• 25% higher likelihood of resolving scrutiny with a single response that remains sufficient across platforms, regulators, and legal review
  
  
• 47× less executive-level time required to manage advertising scrutiny due to earlier resolution and reusable responses

"For brands, the risk isn't influencer marketing itself. It's what happens when scrutiny starts and there's no clear, credible record to point to," said Peter Prosol, CEO of the Validation Institute. "Our validation shows that Disclosure Facts gives brands something most disclosure approaches don't: a single, verifiable response that holds up across platforms, regulators, and legal review. That materially reduces escalation risk and the internal time required to manage it."

Disclosure Facts is designed as invisible infrastructure for brands. Once embedded, it supports new platforms, regulations, and advertising formats without requiring brands to change how they create or scale campaigns.

About Disclosure Facts

Disclosure Facts builds advertising risk infrastructure for consumer brands, enabling them to respond once to advertising scrutiny and move on. The company was named 2025 Regulatory Compliance Innovation of the Year by the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards and raised a $4.2 million seed round led by BBG Ventures and Anthemis, with participation from Revolution and Tribe Capital. Learn more at disclosurefacts.com.

About Validation Institute

The Validation Institute is an independent third-party organization that validates performance, ROI, and risk-reduction claims across business services. Validated claims are backed by a $100,000 credibility guarantee.

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SOURCE Disclosure Facts