The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) has issued an Enforcement Notice following recent reports of education providers not adhering to its advertising rules for promoting training for injectable procedures.
The Enforcement Notice stated, “It has come to our attention that there are a significant number of advertisers advertising training courses for aesthetic injectables such as botulinum toxin and dermal fillers. Some of these ads have failed to include material information we consider to be important for prospective students.”
The CAP made reference to three previous investigations by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent regulator that enforces the CAP codes, of ads in 2019 which were found to be in breach of the CAP codes.
The CAP stated that information omitted from the ads included: requirements to get on the course, the nature and duration of training, what qualification one would expect to achieve and if the course on offer met the standards necessary for admittance onto a professional relevant register.
The CAP stated, “In the absence of this information advertisers risk breaching the Advertising Codes for issues surrounding misleadingness and the omission of material information for cosmetic training ads. We are communicating this guidance to the cosmetics and regulatory industry to ensure a level playing field and compliance with the CAP Code.”
