The Asa Now Regulate Brand Website Marketing

A deal has been struck to extend the Advertising Standards Authority's remit to include marketing on brand websites

. Currently the ASA's remit does not include website communications, but all that is about to change.

The plan would add marketing communications to the display and paid-for adverts the ASA currently regulates. It follows months of talks between a number of parties including the Advertising Association (AA). Among other things, how the new remit would be financed was a key concern.

Until now, marketing communications on brand websites were not subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code on advertising, which the ASA currently adjudicate on.

Consumer groups and MPs have expressed concern about marketers using materials online which would not pass controls placed on other channels. Lord Smith of Finsbury, who is chairman of the ASA thinks it is "crucial" for the ASA to deal with the complaints made to them about marketing communications on brand websites.

Jo Farmer, a partner at Lewis Silkin the law firm, pointed out problems in seeing which nation's regulators deals with websites hosted outside the UK but targeting UK consumers. When the proposal is published and ratified by the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (ASBOF), the ASA Council, CAP and the AA, these potential problems will hopefully be dealt with.

The ASBOF, which currently administers a 0.1 per cent levy from advertisers to fund the ASA's work, have agreed a deal with search giant Google to get the ball rolling. It is thought that the new regulations will come into operation during the second half of next year.

It presents a potential danger to brands who trade online, who have been used to being exempt from advertising standards regulation. While most big brands act and communicate in an honest and permissible manner, it is thought the new regulations could make complicated stories out of websites which are hosted abroad, and therefore do not necessarily fall in the ASA's remit. The global nature of the internet means that UK consumers can view any website from around the world, and to police every website in the world would take a much bigger organisation than the ASA.

However it turns out, big brands online (including newspapers) will now be held to account if their marketing materials incite complaints to the ASA. Let's just hope that the ASA is able to adjudicate the websites producing complaints from consumers.

by: john mce

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