Marketing and advertising

Marketing and advertising law

Legal requirements for promoting your business.

UK-wide
Guide summary

Follow UK advertising rules to keep your marketing legal. Be honest, show prices clearly, and disclose paid partnerships. Check extra rules if you advertise alcohol.

  • Make sure all claims are truthful and can be proved
  • Show prices clearly including VAT for consumers
  • Compare fairly with competitors if making comparisons
  • Disclose paid partnerships with #ad or 'advertisement'
  • Check alcohol advertising rules which vary by UK nation
  • Scotland alcohol minimum price is 65p per unit
  • Wales alcohol minimum price is 50p per unit
  • Keep evidence for any claims in your advertisements
  • Follow the CAP Code for most marketing communications
  • ASA can ban ads that break the rules
On this page
UK-wide

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: <p>Enforced by the <strong>Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)</strong>. Disabled users can file discrimination claims if they encounter accessibility barriers.</p><p><strong>Consequences of non-compliance:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Compensation payments:</strong> £3,000+ typical settlements for discrimination claims</li><li><strong>Court orders:</strong> Requiring accessibility improvements</li><li><strong>Legal costs</strong></li><li><strong>Reputational damage</strong></li></ul><p>Public sector bodies may also be publicly named by GDS for non-compliance with accessibility statements.</p>
Accessibility requirements for websites and apps (GOV.UK) (opens in a new tab)
Marketing and advertising: the law (opens in a new tab)