Ad description
A paid-for ad for the e-cigarette and e-liquid manufacturer Cloudstix.com, seen on 11 January 2018 on e-cigarette directory and forum Planet of the Vapes, www.planetofthevapes.co.uk, on a web page titled “Discount Codes”. The ad contained text stating “Cloudstix.com Luxury E-cigarette products at low prices”, the discount code “POTV03” and “5% off all products”. At the top of the web page, above the ad, text stated “The discount codes on this page are not to be used for the purchase of unlicensed nicotine containing products or their components”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad promoted e-cigarettes and their products on online media, a medium in which promoting unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components were prohibited, and therefore breached the Code.
Response
Cloudstix.com highlighted the qualification on the web page, which stated that the discount codes on the page were not to be used for the purchase of unlicensed nicotine-containing products or their components. They considered the ad did not promote such products, because the page clearly stated the opposite.
Cloudstix.com said they stocked items such as e-liquids containing nicotine and their tanks, but they also sold hundreds of other items online including coils, batteries, chargers, carry cases, bottles and nicotine-free e-liquids, which were not prohibited. They said they had taken great efforts to ensure that any unlicensed nicotine containing products on their site, which required notification to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), could not have the discount code in the ad applied to them. They said a filter algorithm limited which products or categories the code could be used on, and it would not apply to any products which fell under the Tobacco Products Directive.
Planet of the Vapes also highlighted the qualification at the top of the discount codes web page on which the ad appeared. They said the qualification meant they were actively telling visitors to their site that the codes were not to be used for purchasing unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or their components.
Planet of the Vapes provided an email they had previously sent to all advertisers on their website which advised them to ensure the discount codes did not apply to unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or their components. They said they were also very careful to ensure that the advertisers featured in ads on their website were only general vendors of products, and that their ads did not contain any images of unlicensed products.
Assessment
Not upheld
Rule 22 .12 of the CAP Code reflected a legislative ban contained in the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR) on the advertising of unlicensed, nicotine containing e-cigarettes in certain media. The rule stated that, except for media targeted exclusively to the trade, advertisements with the direct or indirect effect of promoting nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components which are not licensed as medicines were not permitted in online media. While the rule did not necessarily prohibit ads for e-cigarette businesses, such ads would need to do nothing that promoted unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or their components.
We understood the discount code in the ad could not be applied on the Cloudstix.com website to any prohibited products under TRPR, such as nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and e-liquids, and only applied to accessories such as coils and batteries. We tested the Cloudstix.com website, and acknowledged that the discount code did not appear to be applicable to those products which were prohibited from being promoted. The web page on which the ad appeared included a qualification at the top which stated that the discount codes on that page were “not to be used for the purchase of unlicensed nicotine containing products or their components”. We considered that qualification informed consumers that the discount code, and accordingly the ad, was not for unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or e-liquids.
Because the ad featured a qualification at the top of the page which indicated that the discount code could not be used on unlicensed nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or e-liquids, and because the discount code could not indeed be used on those products, we concluded that the ad did not have the direct or indirect effect of promoting them, and was therefore not in breach of the Code.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 22 .12 (Electronic cigarettes), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
