Self-regulation effective alternative to statutory control

15 June 2005

Advertising self-regulation can offer an effective, alternative model to regulation by statutory authorities, saving € millions in public expenditure. This is the message from the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as it visits the European Parliament on the eve of the UK Presidency.

During a day (15 June) of briefing meetings and a lunch for MEPs sponsored by Phillip Whitehead MEP, who chairs the Consumer Protection Committee of the Parliament, the ASA’s Chairman, Lord Borrie QC, will explain that self-regulation is often misinterpreted as industry’s way of keeping policy makers at bay. Instead, he will argue, the advertising industry needs to make a success of self-regulation in order to maintain the public’s confidence in advertising and the truthfulness of its message. Without a receptive audience and public acceptability, advertising is doomed to fail.

The ASA’s Director General, Christopher Graham, said that the visit would provide an opportunity for the ASA to share lessons from the creation of the UK’s one-stop shop for advertising regulation, which launched in November 2004. "There are effective alternatives to statutory control which can successfully safeguard both the consumer interest and fair competition between advertisers while still maintaining independence from both industry and government," he said. "In the UK, the ASA operates a self-regulatory one-stop shop for all advertising complaints which saves the public purse approximately €10m per year."

The ASA is a founder member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance, which is committed to effective advertising self-regulation across the Single Market.