Joint guidelines have been released by UK’s The Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority on the use of online sponsored links by UK advertisers of financial products and services. The regulators have made it clear that, in their view, the rules governing credit advertising and financial promotions apply equally to sponsored links as they do to other forms of paid for online advertising. In essence, consumers must be treated fairly and not be misled when they use keywords to search for information on financial products and services. Advertisers are also expressly advised not to sponsor the names of other firms/competitors if this could result in misleading the consumer or creating an expectation that their firm is the same as the one the consumer has searched for.
Examples of potential breaches of the rules are given in the guidelines. These include selecting search terms that don’t accurately reflect the business being advertised – for example, an advertiser sponsoring the term “independent financial advisers” when it is not independent – and consumers being misled by discrepancies between the impression given by the wording of the link and the consumer’s experience once the link has been followed. For example, a sponsored link claiming “Save up to £160 on your home insurance” could mislead the target audience if in fact only 10% of applicants are expected to qualify for the saving.
The full guidance is available here.
- Richard Dickinson and Jake Marshall