UK DSA renews call for wider adoption of industry standards as AI rules bite in the EU

'Increasingly urgent': the DSA sharpens its message

The British Direct Selling Association (DSA) renewed its call in September 2026 for wider adoption of recognised industry standards across the UK market, describing the situation as 'increasingly urgent'.

The association is led by director general Susannah Schofield OBE, and its membership includes direct selling companies such as Avon, Oriflame, Usborne and Neal's Yard Remedies Organics.

According to the DSA, three forces are converging to create new challenges for the sector: the advance of artificial intelligence, the growth of social media-based commerce, and demand for flexible ways to supplement income.

AI tools and the risk of non-compliant marketing

The DSA warns that AI tools make it easier for actors inclined towards abuse to enter the market with realistic-looking but not necessarily legally compliant product descriptions, earnings statements or health-related content.

The association points to a recent complaint case involving a British consumer who put more than £15,000 into a business opportunity offered by a direct selling organisation based abroad. The DSA's investigation led to the suspension of the individual concerned and to an agreement with the complainant.

The association asks consumers and prospective sellers to look for its logo before making a choice, as the mark indicates that a business has been independently assessed against the DSA's codes of conduct. Those codes set expectations on ethical business practice, transparency and consumer protection that go beyond UK consumer protection legislation.

EU transparency duties now enforceable

The regulatory backdrop has shifted on the other side of the Channel. In the European Union, the transparency obligation set out in Article 50 of the AI Act (EU 2024/1689) entered into force and became enforceable on 2 August 2026.

Article 50 applies to providers and deployers offering or using chatbots, systems generating synthetic media, emotion recognition systems or deepfake tools, regardless of whether the system is classified as 'high risk' under the AI Act. The rules require that people be informed when they are interacting with an AI system, and that AI-generated or manipulated content be labelled, including deepfakes and AI-generated text published on matters of public interest without human editorial review.

Breaches can trigger fines of up to 15 million euros or 3 per cent of a company's global annual turnover, whichever is higher. For the sub-obligation to mark AI-generated content in machine-readable form, that is through watermarking, systems already available on the market were granted a separate grace period running until 2 December 2026.

The European Commission adopted guidelines on 20 July 2026 to support the application of Article 50, and is also drawing up a voluntary code of conduct on the labelling of AI-generated content.