According to research released by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) the vast majority of UK websites are currently complying with the Committee of Advertising (CAP) Code. The research undertaken by the ASA’s compliance team studied 120 websites and 600 pages, which had a CAP Code compliance rate of 95% and 96.3% respectively.
The results from the study will be used as the benchmark for future compliance assessment although the ASA was keen to caution that the research was conducted across a relatively small sample and that only obvious breaches of the CAP Code were reported on.
Despite the positivity of this figure, the Advertising Standards Authority have also recently revealed that in the 7 months since their remit was extended into the online sphere, they have received over 5,000 complaints about online marketing communications. Guy Parker, Chief Executive of the ASA did however explain that most of the complaints came just after the extension when many were unaware of the CAP Code. He was also keen to point out that since this time the number has flattened and that the internet should not be viewed as some sort of “Wild West.”
