The Government has published its Call for Evidence on Online Advertising, which you can find here. The deadline for submissions is the 23rd March 2020.
This forms part of government’s response to the Cairncross Review, in which they announced their intention to consider how online advertising is regulated in the UK and how well the current regulatory system is equipped to tackle the challenges posed by developments in online advertising. Ultimately government’s aim is to foster fair, accountable and ethical online advertising, that works for consumers, businesses and society as a whole.
This Call for Evidence seeks views on the content and placement standards governing online advertising and is designed to complement the work of parallel reviews in this area, such as the CMA market study and the CDEI report on online targeting. The Call for Evidence seeks views in the following areas:
• Benefits and challenges of online advertising
• The existing system of oversight and regulation
• Further action
Government welcome both short and long term potential solutions, with the rules regarding advertising for specific types of content (gambling, alcohol, HFSS) and political advertising sitting outside of scope.
ISBA will be discussing this further within its media working groups and corporate affairs forum.