In March 2022, the ASA announced a year-long Intermediary and Platform Principles pilot, which aims to extend the ASA’s role online and explore bringing more accountability and transparency to the ASA’s regulation of paid online ads. The pilot began on 1 June 2022.

Resulting from a collaboration with IAB UK, the pilot revolves around six key Principles, which establish broad objectives around awareness-raising, advertiser compliance and ASA enforcement online.

Participating companies including Adform, Amazon Ads, Google, Index Exchange, Meta, Snap Inc, TikTok, Twitter and Yahoo, volunteered to provide information to the ASA to demonstrate how they operate in accordance with the Principles.

The ASA’s interim report on the pilot covers the initial four-month period (1 June to 30 September 2022) of the Pilot. The full report will provide a more complete reflection of how the Principles have helped achieve the Pilot goals during the full twelve-month period.

Most participating companies provided information suggesting that they are wholly or mainly fulfilling the Principles relevant to them so far. This view is based on the information provided to the ASA and, where applicable, the ASA’s own internal records with reference to the relevant guidance. The ASA notes the interim nature of the report, but considers that the information provided to date is encouraging, and, over the full twelve months of the Pilot, the ASA is optimistic it will see full implementation of all applicable Principles by the participating companies.

The ASA notes that the applicability and implementation of certain Principles can be limited by individual circumstances of participating companies, including their business models, and looks forward to considering the ways in which such factors may be addressed in the remainder of the Pilot.

The ASA will publish a final report in Q3 2023 reflecting on the full twelve months of the Pilot. The ASA says that the information gathered through the Pilot will help it, the industry, and other stakeholders to collectively consider whether and where further action could be taken to enhance the ASA’s ability to enforce the CAP Code online by working with the participating companies and other online intermediary businesses. In this way, the ASA says that the Pilot may serve to inform future policy thinking in this area. To read the ASA’s press release in full and for a link to the interim report, click here