29/09/2017

Ban on e-cigarette health claims to end? (UK)

Proposals to remove the ban on health claims for e-cigarettes from the two codes setting out advertising rules for agencies, advertisers and media owners have been published for consultation by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and its broadcasting equivalent (BCAP).

The proposals in ‘E-cigarettes: health claims and public health advertisements’ reflect the positive views on improvements to e-cigarettes expressed by the majority of respondents to the 2016 call for evidence, as well as the equally positive view taken by many public health stakeholders on e-cigarettes’ relative safety compared with smoked tobacco.

The proposals will, if approved, allow claims such as the health benefits of e-cigarettes relative to tobacco but only on the limited number of media channels where ads for e-cigarettes are allowed. Advertisers will also have to hold ’robust substantiation’ that their claims were true.

The consultation also seeks views on CAP’s proposals on how it intends to regulate ads for public health campaigns which refer to e-cigarettes generally but which do not refer to a particular brand or product.