As from 1 December 2011 if you are thinking of complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority ("ASA") about a competitor's advertising, you will first need to raise your complaint with the advertiser, give the advertiser an opportunity to respond and submit evidence of this before your complaint will be considered by the ASA.

To view the article in full, please see below:




Full Article

The ASA has introduced a change in procedure concerning complaints about competitors' advertising, in an effort to promote faster resolution of disputes and to cut costs. This change has arisen following the internal process review which the ASA concluded in October.

From 1 December 2011 the ASA will not consider any complaint about advertising raised by a competitor unless the complainant is able to show that it has raised the issue with the advertiser and tried to resolve the dispute. The ASA states that it will expect to see evidence of a letter, ideally sent by registered post, signed by a person of sufficient seniority, which clearly sets out the advertisement complained of and the nature of the complaint. Where the advertisement is displayed online a screenshot of the relevant page should be enclosed or a cached copy of the site secured.

The advertiser must then be allowed five working days to provide a substantive response. If the advertiser has then not opened a substantive dialogue or the parties cannot reach an agreement, a complaint may then be submitted to the ASA, which should attach relevant correspondence. It is not clear whether, if a substantive dialogue has commenced, a complaint may still be made, and if so, when. A common sense view should be taken, depending upon how discussions progress.

The ASA will retain discretion to waive this requirement in rare and appropriate cases and will monitor the efficacy of the change in procedure over the coming months.

While many complainants may, as a matter of course, have followed this practice in the past, this requirement will represent a change in practice for some complainants and will be relevant to the tactics of considering a competitor complaint to the ASA.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 29/11/2011.