UK LEGAL COMMENT
UK industry advertising code sees major restructure
Northridge Law’s Melanie Ellis analyses the changes in the new code from the Betting and Gaming Council
Changes to the Industry Code from 1 October 2020 New provisions in the Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising (the “Industry Code”) come into effect on 1 October 2020. Previously drafted and administered by the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling, the recently formed Betting and Gaming Council (“BGC”) have taken over management of the Industry Code. The BGC has also taken over the responsibilities of the Senet Group, which is reflected in the removal from the Industry Code of the suggestion that operators use the Senet Group’s strapline “when the fun stops, stop”, although this probably also reflects the outcome of research last year which showed that its use did not result in any changes to gambling behaviour. In this new version of the code, the BGC has also changed the language to refer to “safer” gambling throughout, in place of “responsible” gambling. The substantive changes to the code are the addition
of new provisions which reflect the growing importance of online advertising. The new requirements relate to social media advertising, promoting consumer awareness, search activity and affiliate activity.
Status of the Industry Code The Industry Code was originally intended to be a voluntary code that responsible gambling operators would sign up to. Since 2015, compliance with the Industry Code has been a specific requirement of the ordinary code provisions (“OCP”) of the LCCP. To justify non-compliance with an OCP, an operator must be able to demonstrate that their alternative approach is reasonable and non-compliance in the absence of such justification would be taken into account by the Commission if a licence review were taking place for other reasons.
So, in effect, licensees need to comply with the
“voluntary” Industry Code unless specific circumstances provide strong justification for divergence. The fact that the code is drafted with voluntary compliance in mind, for example with certain terms not properly defined, can create difficulties when operators need to treat it as something they must follow.
Social media advertising The Industry Code already included requirements for advertising on social media which supplemented the requirements of the CAP Code. These required safer gambling messaging, the use of 18+ symbols and age gating direct marketing videos on YouTube. A key new requirement to note is that paid-for social media adverts must now be targeted at consumers aged 25 and over. Erroneously, the BGC’s press release announcing the new code implied that only an 18+ filter is required if the social media platform can prove the audience is over 18. However, according to the code itself, this is something the BGC will only consider in the future, as age verification technology improves. When it comes to an operator’s own content on
YouTube, as opposed to paid-for adverts, the requirement is to age-restrict the content to 18+ rather than 25+. This applies to content on the operator’s own YouTube channels and “organic YouTube content”. Operators will also need to use reasonable endeavours to exclude customers from their social media campaigns
34 SEPTEMBER 2020
Studio Romantic/Adobe Stock
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