Sanctions of the ASA

Bad Publicity

Contrary to the saying, not all publicity is good publicity and the ASA realises that bad publicity is bad news for most marketers. After all, the majority of consumers would find it hard to trust a company that repeatedly found itself in breach of advertising rules. To this end, the ASA publishes weekly adjudications on its website every Wednesday where full details of its investigations can be found. To view ASA adjudications, visit the adjudications section of the ASA website. The press are also granted full access to the same information that is included in its weekly adjudications, bringing even more bad publicity to bad marketers.

Copy Advice

The ASA can order advertisers not to advertise unless the CAP Copy Advice team have seen the advertisement first and allowed the advertisement to go ahead. The most famous example of this was when the ASA told French Connection UK Ltd, who make the FCUK branded clothing, to pre-vet all their advertisements with the CAP Copy Advice team.

CAP Compliance Team

The CAP Compliance Team is the enforcement arm of the ASA and CAP. The Compliance Team works to ensure that advertisers remove their problematic claims. The Compliance Team is a rather secretive arm of CAP as it does not report back to complainants, nor does it publish the result of its work. However, part of its work does involve contacting media owners and telling them not to take any advertisements from problematic advertisers until the CAP Copy Advice team have pre-vetted the advertisement.

Office of Fair Trading

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is the ASA's legal enforcement body. The OFT has powers to fine companies and bring legal action to them. If the ASA has trouble with a repeat offender, they can refer the matter to the OFT under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988. The OFT can then take whatever action they deem necessary.

Ofcom

The ASA can also refer problematic broadcast advertisers to Ofcom. Broadcasters have ultimate responsibility for the advertisements on their channel and are therefore answerable to the statutory organisation which provides the license, Ofcom. Ofcom has the power to fine and/or to revoke licenses. following over 1,000 complaints to the ASA about the shopping channel Auctionworld, the ASA referred the matter to Ofcom who found the company in breach of its license and fined it. The fine was eventually the final straw and Auctionworld ended up in administration and went out of business.

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