Marketing and advertising UK-wide

Marketing and advertising law

Legal requirements for promoting your business.

Guide summary

Make sure all your ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful. Keep proof for any claims you make, show prices clearly including VAT, and use #ad for paid or gifted products. If you sell alcohol, follow the minimum pricing rules for Scotland (65p per unit), Wales (50p) and check England/Northern Ireland have no minimum.

  • Check the CAP Code before any ad or marketing
  • Keep evidence for every claim you make
  • Show prices clearly – include VAT for consumers
  • Use #ad, #advert or 'advertisement' for paid content
  • Make comparisons with competitors fair and factual
  • Disclose any gifted items or free products you promote
  • Follow alcohol minimum pricing per UK nation
  • Scotland: minimum 65p per unit of alcohol
  • Wales: minimum 50p per unit of alcohol
  • England and Northern Ireland: no minimum unit price
On this page

Related guides in Growth & Strategy

All advertising and marketing must be legal, decent, honest, and truthful. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) enforces these rules for most forms of advertising in the UK.

Alcohol advertising and minimum pricing

If you advertise or sell alcohol, you must comply with additional regulations that vary significantly across the UK nations. Alcohol minimum unit pricing also differs by location.

  1. 1

    Check the CAP Code

    The UK Code of Advertising applies to most marketing communications.

  2. 2

    Keep evidence

    Hold proof for any claims you make in advertisements.

  3. 3

    Disclose commercial relationships

    Use #ad, #advert, or 'advertisement' for paid content. Avoid ambiguous terms.

  4. 4

    Check minimum pricing if selling alcohol

    Scotland (65p), Wales (50p), England/NI (none). Ensure compliant pricing if applicable.

Technology & Digital Requirement

Website and digital accessibility requirements

Under the Equality Act 2010, all UK businesses must make 'reasonable adjustments' to ensure websites, apps, and digital services are accessible to people with disabilities. This is an anticipatory duty - you must proactively identify and remove barriers before disabled users encounter them.

What you must do

  • Follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA - the recognised standard for compliance
  • Ensure your site works with assistive technologies (screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech recognition)
  • Provide text alternatives for images, keyboard navigation, sufficient colour contrast (4.5:1 minimum for text)
  • Make content understandable and navigation consistent
  • Ensure forms have clear labels and helpful error messages

Public sector organisations

Have additional legal obligations under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018:

  • Mandatory WCAG 2.2 AA compliance (became legal standard October 2023, public sector monitoring from October 2024)
  • Legally required accessibility statement explaining compliance status
  • Monitored by Government Digital Service (GDS)

Accessibility statements (best practice)

While not legally required for private sector, publishing an accessibility statement demonstrates:

  • Your commitment to accessibility
  • Known issues and workarounds
  • How users can report accessibility problems
  • Your improvement roadmap

Business case

  • £274 billion: Annual spending power of disabled consumers and families ('Purple Pound') - DWP 2020 estimate
  • £17.1 billion: Lost annually by UK businesses from disabled customers abandoning inaccessible websites (Click-Away Pound Survey 2019 - latest available data)
  • 1 in 4 UK residents have a disability (25% of population - 16.8 million people). For working-age adults (16-64), it's 1 in 5 (20%)
Who this applies to: All UK businesses with websites or digital services (regardless of size or sector). Public sector organisations have stricter requirements with mandatory compliance monitoring. Applies whether services are free or paid.
Enforcement:

Enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Disabled users can file discrimination claims if they encounter accessibility barriers.

Consequences of non-compliance:

  • Compensation payments: £3,000+ typical settlements for discrimination claims
  • Court orders: Requiring accessibility improvements
  • Legal costs
  • Reputational damage

Public sector bodies may also be publicly named by GDS for non-compliance with accessibility statements.

Accessibility requirements for websites and apps (GOV.UK) (opens in a new tab)
Marketing and advertising: the law (opens in a new tab)