On March 1, the scope of the UK’s Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (“CAP Code”) was significantly expanded to apply to a variety of new technologies, including online social networks, online video advertisements, viral advertisements, in-game advertisements, and advertisements transmitted via web widgets, and online sales promotions and prize promotions. The Code regulates non-broadcast marketing communications in the UK, and includes rules intended to prevent misleading or deceptive advertising, as well as to protect vulnerable classes, including children.
Going forward, advertisements and other marketing communications by or from companies, organizations or sole traders on their own websites, or in other non-paid-for space online under their control, that are directly connected with the supply or transfer of goods, services, opportunities and gifts will fall under the Code.
The CAP Code underpins the UK’s self-regulatory framework for regulating marketing and promotional communications over non-broadcast mediums, and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) oversee its application and enforcement, with backstop enforcement provided by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading.