Imprint (Impressum) on Instagram & Facebook: how it works

Do I need an imprint on Instagram?

Yes, if you use the profile for business. Since May 14, 2024, the imprint duty has been in § 5 of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG, Germany’s Digital Services Act). It replaced the Telemediengesetz (TMG, the Telemedia Act); the duty itself stayed the same. “Angaben gemäß § 5 TMG” (“details pursuant to § 5 TMG”) is therefore outdated.

The duty applies to providers of digital services offered on a commercial basis. According to case law and the practice of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IHK), that includes business profiles on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and professional networks (for Facebook: Regional Court of Aschaffenburg, August 19, 2011, 2 HK O 54/11, still under the TMG; IHK Ulm). Purely private profiles are exempt. The law names no follower threshold: what counts is whether you use the profile for your business.

A hair salon that shows appointments and offers on Instagram is operating as a business. Your private profile with vacation photos is not.

What must the imprint contain?

§ 5 (1) DDG lists the mandatory details. Which of them apply to you depends on your legal form and industry.

• Name and address. For legal entities (for example GmbH, UG, AG), also the legal form and the authorized representatives.
• Quick contact. Details for fast electronic contact, including your email address.
• Register and register number, if you are registered.
• VAT ID or business identification number, if you have one.
• Supervisory authority, if your activity requires a license.
• Chamber, professional title and professional rules for regulated professions. For trades that require a license, that means the Chamber of Crafts (Handwerkskammer) and the master craftsperson title.

The imprint must lead to your own business, not to the agency that built your website and not to the shop provider.

How easy to reach must the imprint be?

The details must be “easy to recognize, directly accessible and permanently available” (§ 5 (1) DDG). In practice, the two-click rule of thumb applies: in 2006, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) held it sufficient if the imprint can be reached through two links (BGH, July 20, 2006, I ZR 228/03). The label counts, too: a link that only says “Info” was not enough for the Regional Court of Aschaffenburg in 2011.

What did the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg decide in 2026?

On May 21, 2026 (15 U 99/24), the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Hamburg ruled that for an Instagram account, a clearly visible link directly under the bio is enough if it leads to a website with a complete imprint. A complete imprint in the profile itself is not required. According to the court, a brief technical outage of the linked page is not a violation in itself.

Where do I add the imprint on each platform?

Menus change often. The details come from law firm and trade association sources (as of October 13, 2026) and may differ in your app. Links in Instagram captions are not clickable, so the link belongs in your bio.

Special cases: no website, small business, Linktree

• No website of your own. The duty does not depend on having a website but on the details being easy to reach. A link under the bio to a simple page that contains only the complete imprint matches the setup in the Hamburg case (single case). On Facebook, you can also enter the imprint as text in the About section (see table). Whether that is enough in your case is something to clarify with your IHK or a lawyer.
• Small business. The rule names no business size. What counts is whether you use the profile on a commercial basis.
• Home address. The address is one of the mandatory details. Whether and how you can replace your private address in an individual case depends on your activity. Clarify that with your IHK, your Chamber of Crafts or a lawyer.
• Linktree and other link trees. Make “Impressum” visible on the first level. The Bavarian consumer advice center objected to imprints that could be reached only after more than two clicks, or behind “More” or a link tree.

Do you need a privacy notice besides the imprint?

A separate privacy notice for your social media profiles is recommended, linked right next to the imprint. Background: on June 5, 2018 (C-210/16), the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that operators of a Facebook fan page are jointly responsible with Facebook for processing visitor data.

How far this shared responsibility reaches today is disputed. On July 17, 2025 (13 K 1419/23), the Administrative Court of Cologne ruled that the German federal government may keep operating its Facebook page: for cookie processing, Meta alone is responsible. The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection has appealed. A decision by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia (OVG NRW) could not be found as of this article’s legal status date (October 13, 2026).

Transparency is undisputedly sensible. A privacy notice for social media usually names:

• you as the controller and the platform operator as joint controller,
• purposes and legal basis, usually the legitimate interest in public relations,
• the essential content of the agreement with the platform operator, with a link to the Meta or LinkedIn addendum on joint responsibility,
• the rights of data subjects and possible data transfers to third countries.

What happens without an imprint?

A missing or faulty imprint can cost a fine of up to €50,000 (§ 33 DDG). In practice, warning letters (Abmahnungen) from competitors or associations under competition law (the UWG, Germany’s Unfair Competition Act) are more common.

A market check by the Bavarian consumer advice center (as of October 2025) shows how closely this is checked: from April 28 to June 30, 2025, it examined 26 Instagram influencers with more than 500,000 followers. In 23 cases there were violations of ad labeling or imprint rules, and 10 received warning letters. Typical flaws: no imprint at all, more than two clicks to reach it, an imprint behind “More” or a link tree, an unreachable page, and the imprint of someone else’s shop or an agency.

Which mistakes happen most often?

• Your website only says “The imprint also applies to our social media profiles”, and the profile itself has no link. In the view of IT-Recht Kanzlei (January 14, 2022), that doesn’t help.
• The link to the imprint is called just “Info” instead of “Impressum”. An upstream link called “Kontakt” (contact) is unproblematic under the BGH’s two-click rule of thumb (2006).
• The imprint is only reachable after three or more clicks behind a link tree.
• The imprint belongs to the agency you hired instead of your business.
• The address or email address is out of date.
• The text still says “§ 5 TMG”.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All sources were retrieved on October 13, 2026. Laws and authorities come first, reports after.

Laws, authorities, consumer protection

• § 5 DDG (in German) – statute text
• § 33 DDG, fine provisions (in German) – statute text
• Verbraucherzentrale Bayern: market check on ad labeling and imprint details among influencers, as of October 2025 (in German)
• OLG Hamburg, May 21, 2026, 15 U 99/24, excerpt on dejure.org (in German)
• IHK Bonn: the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz replaces the Telemediengesetz (in German)
• IHK Ulm: legal obligations for websites (in German)
• VG Köln: press release of July 22, 2025 on 13 K 1419/23 (in German)
• BfDI: press release 12/2025 of August 22, 2025 on the appeal in the fan page case (in German)
• LinkedIn: Page Insights Joint Controller Addendum

Reports and law firm articles

• RA Mauritz: Instagram imprint, OLG Hamburg, August 6, 2026 (in German)
• Taylor Wessing: Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz from May 14, 2024 (in German)
• Fachanwalt.de on BGH, July 20, 2006, I ZR 228/03 (in German)
• Ferner Alsdorf on LG Aschaffenburg, August 19, 2011, 2 HK O 54/11 (in German)
• IT-Recht Kanzlei: imprint on Facebook (in German)
• IT-Recht Kanzlei: legal texts for social media, January 14, 2022 (in German)
• beck-aktuell: CJEU, June 5, 2018, C-210/16 (in German)