Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Final ASA guidance on UK less healthy food and drink advertising: brand advertisement exemption, identifiability, three carve-outs, influencer gifting, HFSS relationship and compliance pointers

Published on: 19 December 2025

Published by a LexisNexis TMT expert

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Article summary

The ASA has published its final guidance on the promotion of less healthy food and drink. This version is largely unchanged from the earlier draft that was previously issued. For fuller detail, see Practice Note: Food advertising—New TV and online HFSS advertising restrictions and News Analysis: The implementation of advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, which analyses the updated Consultation response. Notably, it explains how the new rules apply to influencers, including that ‘gifted’ items fall within the paid-for online restrictions set out. It also notes that fleeting mentions of less healthy products—such as within a supermarket’s Christmas ad—are less likely to be caught in practice.

When is a product identifiable and in scope of the restrictions?

The statutory question is whether people in the UK could reasonably be expected to recognise an advertisement as being for a less healthy product. Where the product is not ‘identifiable’ in that way, the restriction does not apply. If it is identifiable, it may nonetheless be outside scope if an exemption is relevant. The ASA considers ads on a case-by-case basis, from the standpoint of a reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect consumer in the UK as applicable...

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