What this report covers
This report examines the impact of enforcement against advertisers of food supplements whose ads contain claims to prevent, treat or cure traits of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in paid ads on Meta and Google between February and July 2026.
It highlights fluctuations in compliance after these actions and a reduction in the volume of harmful ads.
Key findings
- Using our AI-based Active Ad Monitoring system, we captured 72.4k unique paid ads for food supplements that appeared relevant to ADHD and ASD on Meta and Google between February and July 2026.
- We found that 1,383 ads by 17 advertisers broke the rules.
- The main issues were claims that supplements could treat, prevent or cure traits of ADHD or ASD, alongside health claims that breached the Code.
- Compliance remained low during the monitoring period. It was 4.7% in February, rose to 31.2% in June, and fell to 8.6% in July.
- Nearly half of the advertisers contacted were based outside the UK, which may have contributed to slower progress towards sustained compliance.
Compliance action taken
Throughout the monitoring period, the Compliance team contacted a total of 17 advertisers, who were serving high volumes of ads with significant reach. Three of the 17 advertisers were no longer running ads but had previously made claims that broke the rules. We instructed the remaining 14 advertisers to remove or amend their problematic ads.
CAP Enforcement Reports
CAP Enforcement Reports explain the action CAP takes to address non-compliance in specific sectors. They also show how these actions affect overall compliance rates.
These reports use insights from our AI-based Active Ad Monitoring system to track ads in certain sectors.