Who: UK government
Where: United Kingdom
When: 3 December 2024
Law stated as at: 5 December 2024
What happened:
In a further bid to tackle child obesity, the UK government has introduced a ban on advertisements for less healthy food and drink – also referred to as products high in fat, salt or sugar or HFSS – on TV before 21:00. Ads within Ofcom-regulated on-demand programme services will be subject to the same 21:00 watershed and paid-for ads for in-scope food and drink products will be banned completely online.
This ban will come into effect on 1 October 2025 and is introduced by the Advertising (Less Healthy Food Definitions and Exemptions) Regulations 2024.
To assist businesses with the upcoming changes, the government has published guidance that sets out a summary of the regulations including who the restrictions apply to and the products that are in scope. We explore this guidance further in our Insight.
Why this matters:
These new restrictions go beyond the measures already in place by the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing and the Code of Broadcast Advertising. Businesses will need to familiarise themselves with the new rules to determine the implication of them.
If in scope and in order to remain compliant, businesses may need to change their marketing campaigns to ensure advertisements are not displayed at restricted times or possibly look to change their products so that they fall outside the scope of the regulations.
