Complaints and ASA action
Each year, the UK public sees many millions of ads, direct marketing and digital communications about products, services, charities, causes and awareness campaigns. The vast majority of these are responsible and comply with the existing advertising rules.
Last year we received just over 26,000 complaints and assessed thoroughly every one of those concerns, investigating the ads that seemed to breach the rules.
As a result, nearly 2,500 ads were changed or withdrawn in 2008, thanks to a range of effective sanctions at our disposal and the cooperation of advertisers who respect our decisions.
Here you can find out more about how to complain, our work to resolve complaints and the process for investigating problematic ads.
We aim to deal with these concerns as quickly as possible in a fair and thorough way. Visit this section to learn about our complaints and investigations procedures. We aim to resolve complaints and investigations as soon as possible and strive to establish a healthy working relationship right from the start.
Anyone can complain to the ASA. It's fast, free and easy. Read more about if we can look into your complaint and log your complaint with us.
ASA adjudications provide important guidance to advertisers on how the Codes are to be interpreted. They act as a transparent record of our policy for consumers, media, government, industry and society at large on what is and isn’t acceptable in advertising. We publish our rulings every Wednesday in this section. Use our search to find rulings from the past five years.
In certain circumstances, advertisers or complainants can request an independent review of the ASA Council’s adjudication, including a Council decision not to investigate a complaint after its deliberation. Visit this section to read about the appeal process if you want to lodge an appeal with the Independent Reviewer.
The vast majority of advertisers and broadcasters comply with ASA rulings, however for the small minority who don’t, there are consequences. The main aim of the system is to bring about compliance with the Advertising Codes, rather than punish advertisers. However, some of the sanctions at our disposal can be very detrimental to those advertisers that choose not to comply.
We do not just wait for complaints – we proactively check to see that the Advertising Codes as well as our rulings are adhered to, for example by seeing if any necessary changes have been made to advertisements. We also routinely monitor the media to make sure the Codes are being observed to protect consumers and fair competition. Read more about our monitoring compliance team.