In a landmark decision, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK recently ruled that, for the purposes of the CAP Code at least, a social media user may be considered a celebrity where they have 30,000 followers or more. In this case, the ASA found that an influencer breached the CAP Code when she published an Instagram post promoting an over-the-counter sleeping tablet produced by Sanofi. The caption for the post was marked ‘AD’…

With childhood obesity rates in the UK among some of the worst in Europe, the Government has set a national target to halve childhood obesity by 2030. Whilst the Government acknowledges that this is a multi-faceted problem, it has reported that evidence suggests that children’s exposure to advertising of products that are high in fat, salt and/or sugar (“HFSS”) contributes to their consumption patterns. HFSS product advertising is currently subject to content and placement restrictions…

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the Directive), has now been published in the Official Journal, and entered into force on Friday 7 June 2019. EU member states have two years in which to transpose the Directive (which is now officially Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC).…

The recent judgment in ATB Sales Limited v Rich Energy Limited [2019] EWHC 1207 (IPEC) illustrates the difficulties parties will have in defending copyright infringement claims over artistic works, if they can only provide limited documentary proof of the creative design process. Background ATB Sales Limited (“Claimant”) brought the action against three Defendants: Rich Energy Limited (“First Defendant”); Mr William Stoney, the director and sole shareholder of the First Defendant (“Second Defendant”); and Mr Sean…

Advertising agencies aren’t often employed to create interesting concepts for job adverts and it is easy to forget that, just like any other advertisement, job ads must abide by the rules of the CAP Code (the Code). In fact, there is a whole section of the Code dedicated to marketing communications for employment, business opportunities and homeworking schemes as well as online advice on recruitment and business opportunity advertising. The ASA has recently published some…

Seeking an interim injunction to protect against copyright infringement can often run into difficulties, as demonstrated by the recent judgment in Happy Camper Productions Ltd v British Broadcasting Corporation [2019] EWHC 558 (Ch). The dispute centred on the script for an episode of ‘Pitching in’, a comedy-drama programme by the BBC about a widower in a Welsh caravan camp (the Episode). The Claimant sought an interim injunction to prevent the BBC from broadcasting the…

Despite the consistent and continuous opposition to the controversial Article 13, the European Parliament has adopted the ‘Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market’ (the Directive). MEPs debated and subsequently voted in favour of the Directive, 348 votes to 274 (36 MEPs abstained). The Final Wording of the Directive The latest version of the Directive can be seen here. Articles 11 and 13 have always been the most controversial elements of the Directive…