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Aug 20, 2020 · In the UK, the content of advertising, sales promotions and direct marketing across all media, including marketing on websites, is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The advertising regulatory system is a mixture of: self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising and; co-regulation for broadcast advertising
Sep 12, 2024 · The consultation response published in 2021 set out the decisions for the businesses, products and services that would be in scope of the restrictions. Following this, the policy was set out in...
- Ministerial foreword
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Part 1: Scope of the Online Advertising Programme
- Part 2: Harms caused by online advertising
- Part 3: Regulatory framework
- Part 4: Decisions on regulatory reform
- Annex A: List of respondents to the consultation
- Annex B: Suggested industry initiatives for consideration from consultation responses
Digital technologies have become central to how we communicate, do business and live our lives in the UK. Online advertising is key in supporting our thriving digital economy, funding many of the digital services upon which we all now rely, and promoting the development of new skills and investment in our creative industries.
As a top-performing and fast-growing industry, the online advertising sector acts as a leader in innovation, customer engagement, competitive prices and the setting of shared industry best practice. Having left the EU, we can take our own proportionate approach to regulation that works to drive innovation and sustainable growth, whilst keeping UK internet users safe from criminally-motivated actors and harms associated with illegal advertising: from cyber crime and online fraud, to modern slavery.
This document summarises the responses to our public consultation on the Online Advertising Programme. We are delighted with the engagement in our consultation from stakeholders across industry and beyond. Your input has been invaluable, helping us shape the future of online advertising regulation in the UK.
The Online Advertising Programme aims to support sustainable growth for the advertising industry, as outlined in our Creative Industries Sector Vision. The Programme is part of our wider pro-innovation approach to governing digital technologies set out in the Plan for Digital Regulation. It will complement other digital regulation reforms, including the Online Safety Bill (OSB), the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Protection Bill, and the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. The Programme will build a fit-for-purpose, agile regulatory framework, that protects internet users from bad actors and particularly under-18s from online advertising fraud, illegal content and illegal adverts, while supporting the long-term, sustainable growth of the online advertising sector.
Over the past decade, the industry has become a key revenue source for many businesses, and provided services that highly benefit UK internet users and customers.
It is clear from the responses we received that increasing trust in online advertising is vital for the growth of the sector. However, the scale and speed of development in this field has presented a number of challenges. A lack of transparency and accountability in the supply chain, combined with misaligned incentives, has led to insufficient action to address illegal harms associated with online advertising - negatively impacting consumer trust. More must be done, both by the government and by those across the whole advertising supply chain, to prevent bad actors using online advertising as a method of reaching victims, and therefore to support the success of this important industry.
Advertising is a thriving sector that, as part of the creative industries, makes a significant and valuable contribution to the UK economy. The creative industries in total contributed £108bn Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2021[footnote 1] and employs over 2 million people.[footnote 2] In 2021, the advertising industry generated £19.7 billion GVA, whilst exporting £5 billion in services in 2020.[footnote 3] Whilst initially hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the advertising industry has made a significant recovery with Advertising Association figures showing the UK advertising market reached £34.8 billion in ad spend in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%,[footnote 4] and a 46% increase from 2020.[footnote 5] Online advertising spending made up 75% of total ad spend in 2022 (£26.1 billion), including £13.1 billion in search advertising, £11.9 billion in display advertising, and £1.1 billion in classified advertising.[footnote 6]
In order for the industry to grow, thrive and innovate, trust and transparency across the whole advertising supply chain is paramount. Key to this is tackling where online advertising may cause harm, inadvertent or otherwise. The call for evidence, external research commissioned by DCMS and significant stakeholder engagement indicated a range of prevailing harms that could be attributed to online advertising, and particularly illegal advertising. The lack of transparency within opaque online advertising supply chains, coupled with the lack of accountability across key areas of the supply chain, also remains a cause for concern.
Therefore, as detailed below, we consider that legislative reform will be necessary. The government intends to introduce a new and targeted regulatory framework for online advertising, which focuses on tackling illegal advertising (as defined under existing criminal provisions) and increasing the protection of under-18s online. The new framework will introduce statutory regulation of parties in the online advertising supply chain that are not currently regulated by statute for some types of illegal advertising (including fraud and scams) or for the protection of children and young people - namely platforms, intermediaries and publishers (PIPs). This will build on existing regulation of PIPs for unlawful adverts, such as misleading advertising. This ensures that these parties in the supply chain who have the power to help prevent harmful advertising reaching consumers and children and young people play a proportionate part in that regulation.
To complement the legislation, we will also be forming a ministerial-led taskforce over the summer to drive forward non-legislative action, asking industry to work with us on addressing illegal harms and the protection of children by:
•improving the evidence base on the scale of the threat and impact of illegal harms
•building on existing voluntary industry initiatives focused on tackling drivers of illegal harms
In February 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced that it would consider how online advertising is regulated. Our aim through this work has been to foster fair, accountable and ethical online advertising that works for citizens, businesses and society as a whole. In particular to:
•ensure standards about the placement and content of advertising can be effectively applied and enforced online so that consumers have limited exposure to harmful advertising;
•promote a competitive and fair online advertising market for businesses so that all businesses can compete on merit; and
•drive transparent and ethical targeting practices for advertising online so that consumers are informed, empowered and can have trust in online advertising.
Building on previously commissioned research and the call for evidence, in March 2022 we published the Online Advertising Programme consultation. The consultation reviewed the effectiveness of the current self-regulatory framework for paid-for online advertising, independently administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). It also considered how the government can build on the existing regime, by strengthening the mechanisms currently in place and those being developed, to equip our regulators to meet the challenges of the online sphere, whilst maintaining the government’s pro-innovation and proportionate approach to digital regulation.
During this time, 115 submissions were received, including 80 by email and 35 via our survey platform. Respondents ranged from market participants engaged across various stages of the online advertising supply chain, stakeholders working in competing or complementary markets, and other interested organisations such as consumer groups. A full list of respondents is included in Annex A. All responses submitted before the consultation deadline were reviewed and taken into account in considering next steps for the Online Advertising Programme. Parts 1 to 4 of this document sets out responses to the questions asked in our consultation. Therefore the ‘summary of consultation responses’ sections broken down by the consultation questions reflect the number of respondents that addressed our questions, not the number of respondents that submitted a response overall. Figures and percentages in these summaries, therefore, represent percentages of respondents who addressed each question. 96 respondents structured their submissions in response to our questions, and 19 respondents submitted more general responses. Additionally, a response was received which raised issues in the online advertising market with regards to political advertising; comments on this topic are outside the scope of the Online Advertising Programme and have not been included in our analysis of responses.
The consultation asked the following questions on the scope of the Online Advertising Programme:
1) Do you agree with the categories of online advertising we have included in scope for the purposes of this consultation?
2) Do you agree with the market categories of online advertising that we have identified in this consultation?
3) Do you agree with the range of actors that we have included in the scope of this consultation?
4) Do you agree that we have captured the main market dynamics and described the main supply chains to consider?
5) Do you agree that we have described the main recent technological developments in online advertising in section 2.2.2?
The consultation asked the following questions on harms, industry initiatives, Video on Demand and rationale for intervention in relation to the Online Advertising Programme.
6) Do you agree that our taxonomy of harms covers the main types of harm found in online advertising, both in terms of the categories of harm as well as the main actors impacted by those harms?
7) Do you agree that our above description of the harms faced by consumers or society cover the main harms that can be caused or exacerbated by the content of online advertising?
8) Do you agree that the above description of the harms faced by consumers or society cover the main harms that can be caused or exacerbated by the placement or targeting of online advertising?
9) Do you agree with our description of the range of industry harms that can be caused by online advertising?
10) Do you agree that we have accurately captured the main industry initiatives, consumer tools and campaigns designed to improve transparency and accountability in online advertising?
The consultation asked the following questions on regulatory reform.
Question 13) To what extent do you agree that the current industry-led self-regulatory regime for online advertising, administered by the ASA, to be effective at addressing the range of harms we have identified in section 3.3?
Question 14) Do you consider that the range of industry initiatives described in section 4.3[footnote 16] are effective in helping to address the range of harms set out in section 3.3?[footnote 17]
Question 15)
a) Which of the following levels of regulatory oversight do you think is appropriate for advertisers?
b) Which of the following levels of regulatory oversight do you think is appropriate for intermediaries?
The consultation asked the following questions on regulatory reform:
18) For each of the actors, which measures (set out in the tables in sections 6.1.3 and 6.1.4) do you support, and why?
•5 Rights Foundation
•Advertising Association
•All Response Media
•Association of Online Publishers (AOP)
•Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
•Asahi UK
•Various TAG initiatives, such as TrustNet, Brand Safety work, Threat Exchange and certification schemes
•Various IAB UK initiatives, such as TechLab standards, Gold Standard and Ad Verification Guidelines
•GARM
•UK Online Measurement (UKOM)
•Branded Content Marketing Association’s Influencer Marketing Best Practice Guidance
•Influencer-related initiatives noted by the Influencer Marketing Trade Body
May 21, 2003 · Overture, which started five years ago as GoTo.com, is the clear leader in paid search advertising, where companies bid anywhere from 10 cents to more than $50 per click for the right to...
Helpful information on the advertising rules and examples of previously published ASA rulings based upon topics, issues and media channels.
About the ASA and CAP. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK’s independent advertising regulator. The ASA makes sure ads across UK media stick to the advertising rules (the Advertising Codes).
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The advertising regulatory system is a mixture of: self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising and. co-regulation for broadcast advertising. Self-regulation means that the advertising industry has voluntarily established and paid for its own regulation.
