This article provides a selection of the most interesting ASA adjudications from June and a summary of the key issues considered in those adjudications. Daily deal offers continue to provide grounds for numerous consumer complaints. This month presents several adjudications relating to kgbdeals.com, following four last month. Complaints centred on the advertiser's inability to substantiate that "before" prices and the associated savings claims were genuine.

In 2011 61% of the complaints received by the ASA related to misleading advertising. The CAP has this month issued guidance on how to avoid misleading advertising, which includes an overview of how the ASA judges whether an advert may mislead consumers and a checklist of common pitfalls to avoid.

This month also saw the first complaint upheld against a Twitter-based advertising campaign. The CAP published an article on this decision, highlighting that adverts must not be just potentially identifiable as advertising, but obviously identifiable as advertising. Various ways of identifying advertisements were noted, such as using the Twitter hashtags "#ad" or "#spon". Advertisers may also develop their own symbols of identification, but the users of the relevant service must understand what their symbols stand for. Advertisers would need to take steps to inform audiences about their symbol to the extent that it becomes 'well-established in consumers' minds'. 
 
Finally, as of June 14 2012, the EU Register of nutrition and health claims made on foods has been extended to include a significant number of new claims. This will affect any advertiser making a health claim about food in a marketing communication, as demonstrated in the adjudication relating to Nature's Best Health Products Ltd below. The change will impact how the ASA investigates such complaints going forward, but will not affect the ASA's general approach to nutrition claims. 

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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 27/07/2012.