The UK Government has announced plans to introduce new rules on online advertising for online platforms, intermediaries, and publishers. The aim is to prevent illegal advertising and to introduce additional protections against harmful online ads for under-18s. Full details are set out in its recently published response (“Response”) to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s 2022 Online Advertising Programme Consultation (“Consultation”).
The new rules would sit alongside the proposed UK Online Safety Bill (“OSB”), which addresses rules on user-generated content (see our previous blog here). Since the EU’s Digital Services Act (which starts to apply from February 2024, see our previous blog here) will not apply in the UK following Brexit, the OSB and any new rules following this Response, form the UK’s approach to regulating these matters, as distinct from the EU.