The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of advertising Practice (BCAP) have published a public consultation on proposed amendments to their Codes to reflect changes to UK consumer law in the form of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which received Royal Assent in May 2024.

The DMCCA revoked and restated the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (the CPRs), the legislation from which the majority of the existing CAP and BCAP rules on misleading advertising derive or with which they are otherwise understood to be compatible. CAP and BCAP understand that Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the DMCCA, including provisions pertaining to unfair commercial practices (UCP provisions) will come into force in April 2025.

In large part, the UCP provisions retain the legal framework around misleading advertising that was set out in the CPRs. However, they contain a range of amendments to wording, definition and structure, as well as the addition of several new categories to the Schedule of commercial practices that are in all circumstances considered unfair (prohibited practices).

Most notably, there are new provisions on fake consumer reviews and drip-pricing.

CAP and BCAP’s proposals cover all sections of the Codes that include rules derived from CPRs provisions, which are to be replaced by the relevant sections of the DMCCA. In addition, CAP and BCAP have identified certain other areas not connected to changes in the DMCCA, where rules could benefit from more precise wording in alignment with the relevant underlying law, and where that could be achieved in a straightforward manner.

The majority of the changes are situated in the sections on misleading advertising, as well as those setting out the legal background the rules. However, other rules derived from these provisions also feature in subject-specific sections and amendments have also been proposed to these rules, where appropriate. The relevant sections are listed below:

• Recognition of marketing communications
• Children
• Use of data for marketing
• Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products
• Environmental claims

The consultation will be open for submissions until 5pm on 5 February 2025. CAP and BCAP welcome submissions from organisations and members of the public. Find out how to submit responses by downloading the document here.