Sanctions
We have several sanctions that can be applied against advertisers who do not comply with the Code.
Ad Alerts
Ad Alerts ask the media to consult the Copy Advice team before accepting ads about advertisers named in an alert or about ads relevant for a general Alert.
Ad Alerts are a quick and easy way of drawing the media’s attention to a problem advertiser. We circulate them, in confidence, to CAP members and to individuals responsible for accepting ads for publication. Ad Alerts can be either general or specific. Specific Ad Alerts relate to individual advertisers. General Ad Alerts relate to a general subject or a code policy change that results from an ASA adjudication and that the media knows about.
Sign up for recent general Ad Alerts
To sign up for ad alerts, please contact our compliance team.
Legal backstop
The ASA is recognised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as the established means for regulating misleading and comparative ads in non-broadcast media in the UK. If, having failed to secure an advertiser’s agreement to co-operate with the self-regulatory system, CAP can ask the OFT to consider taking action under the Consumer Protection Regulations (CPRs) or the Business Protection Regulations (BPRs). The OFT can seek undertakings from a company that it will change its ads; it can also seek injunctions from the Court to prevent companies from making misleading claims in their ads. By referring them to the OFT, the ASA and CAP have successfully stopped advertisers misleading the public.
CAP member intervention
The compliance team can ask CAP member bodies to intervene when one of their members is not playing by the rules. Usually an informal intervention is enough to secure future compliance but if that’s not successful the relevant CAP member body could threaten the withdrawal of membership privileges or recognition.
Poster pre-vetting
CAP’s poster industry members can invoke mandatory pre-vetting for advertisers who have broken the CAP Code on taste and decency or social responsibility grounds – the pre-vetting usually lasts for two years.
Sanctions in the digital space
In addition to the above-mentioned options CAP has two further sanctions that can be invoked to help ensure marketers’ claims on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space under their control, comply with the Codes.
CAP can ask internet search websites to remove a marketer’s paid-for search advertisements when those advertisements link directly to a page on the marketer’s own website that hosts non-compliant marketing communications.
Marketers may face adverse publicity if they cannot or will not amend their own non-compliant marketing communication on their own website or in other non-paid-for space online under their control. Their name and their non-compliance may be featured on a dedicated section of the ASA website and, if necessary, in an ASA advertisement appearing on an appropriate page of an internet search website.
Related information
For further information about CAP, register and subscribe to our free quarterly e-mail newsletter, Update.
For an advice on non-broadcast campaigns, please visit the Copy Advice website.