Sonal Patel Oliva
Sonal is a legal director in the Commercial & Advertising group at Fieldfisher. She has extensive experience as an advertising, consumer protection and commercial lawyer acting for domestic and international brands and public sector clients. She advises clients on all of forms of media and across a variety of sectors, including retail, food & beverage, travel & leisure, sport, beauty, health and life sciences.
Her work involves advising clients on advertising and consumer protection regulatory compliance and developing, promoting and protecting their business, brands, IP, products and services via B2B and B2C marketing campaigns and activations, the use of influencers and brand ambassadors, user generated content, loyalty and reward programmes, promotional incentives, such as prize promotions and pricing claims. Sonal also advises clients on defending and pursuing advertising complaints and appeals, and on the contract side, she drafts, negotiates and advises on consumer facing terms, sponsorship, licensing, brand extension, agency, influencer and other commercial contracts.
Sonal works closely with clients' legal and marketing teams, taking a commercial approach to provide tailored advice, workshops and guidance that suits their business needs. Sonal has invaluable commercial experience via secondments to in-house legal teams at broadcasters, online travel companies and utilities companies and takes a pragmatic approach.
Sonal also operates the members' advertising legal hotline for the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), with her colleague, David Bond.
Sonal continues to be individually mentioned as a leading practitioner in legal directories, Chambers and the Legal 500 and is part of a team, top-ranked for advertising and marketing, commercial contracts and franchising.
Practice Areas
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2006
Qualifications
- LLB (1999)
- Legal Practice Course (2000)
1 Contributions by Sonal Patel Oliva
PRACTICE NOTES
Environmental and greenwashing claims in UK advertising: DMCCA regime, CAP/BCAP rules, CMA/ASA guidance, EU measures, sanctions and key ASA rulings
This Practice Note outlines the main controls on the use of environmental claims in advertising and covers these core areas:
relevant legislation
self-regulatory codes
sanctions for non-compliance
Environmental messaging in marketing is rising as consumers become more informed about the ecological effects of the goods and services they choose. Firms are leveraging this heightened awareness by showcasing their sustainability credentials. Examples include statements such as 'environmentally friendly' or presenting a product or service as 'green', 'clean', or 'carbon neutral'. Typical wording ranges from broad descriptors to specific carbon-related statements, reflecting attempts to signal positive environmental impact to prospective customers across their marketing materials. As these claims proliferate, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the body tasked with overseeing advertising in the UK, has seen a parallel uptick in complaints about environmental claims in adverts.
Relevant legislation
Consumer protection from unfair trading
Until April 2025, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277 governed all advertising and commercial practices in the UK and apply to any act, omission or other commercial practice by a business involved in the promotion, sale or supply of products (including services) to consumers. CPUTR 2008 contained a general prohibition on unfair commercial practices,...
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