The ASA enforcement notice on addiction treatment referral advertising: a sector guide

The notice sets out its guidance under five headings drawn from the ASA’s rulings: making commercial intent clear, impartiality claims, claims implying that the advertiser provides treatment directly, exaggeration of the services provided, and implied official approval or endorsement.

Advertising in this sector must not:

• imply that a commercial referral service is impartial when it is not: the ASA has ruled against “unbiased advice” where the company received a commission for facilitating a stay at a partner facility, and against a claim that a named service “has no bias for one clinic over another” where the website was owned by a treatment provider
• use claims implying that the business provides treatment directly at clinics it owns or operates when it does not: the ASA has ruled against uses of “we” and “our” including “our rehabilitation centre”, “our […] counsellors”, “we provide addiction treatment” and “we offer a variety of rehab programmes”
• exaggerate the services a referral company provides: the ASA has ruled that the term “counsellor” is likely to be understood as carrying a level of external qualification in specific addiction counselling, and that “addiction specialists” is likely to be understood as referring to staff able to provide a specific level of addiction support
• falsely imply approval, endorsement or authorisation by any public or other body without substantiation: referral companies are not required to be CQC registered, so do not claim or imply registration, for example by displaying the CQC logo, and note that the BACP, NMC and NHS logos are likely to suggest an association with those bodies
• imply that the service provides medical treatment, or treatment that requires CQC registration, if that is not the case: there must be a clear delineation between services offered directly by the referral company and those offered by third-party professionals to whom patients may be referred
• display the names or logos of insurers where that is likely to imply an affiliation, or feature a testimonial without permission.

And the notice requires that website homepages expressly and prominently state:

• the nature of the business, for example that it is principally a referral service that passes enquiries to third parties
• how the business is funded, for example that it receives a commission for placements taken at partner rehabilitation services.

The ASA has ruled against websites that give this information on a separate page, further down the homepage, or behind a clickable pop-up graphic, even where that graphic sits at the top of the page. A business that provides some services directly, such as online rehab support that does not require CQC registration, must still describe itself principally as a referral service where that is the case.

The CAP Code rules cited in the notice are 2.3 on commercial intent, 3.1 on misleading advertising, 3.7 on substantiation and 3.50 on testimonials. The notice also points advertisers to the free CAP Copy Advice team and to the CQC, which regulates health and adult social care in England and can be contacted at www.cqc.org.uk, enquiries@cqc.org.uk or 03000 616161.