Spotting an overselling health claim is only half the job — knowing what to do about it is the other half. In the UK, the body that actually rules on misleading advertising is the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), and reporting to it is free, quick and genuinely effective more often than most people expect. This guide walks through how the ASA complaints process actually works, what powers it really has, and how to write a complaint that gets taken seriously.
What the ASA Actually Does
The ASA is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across broadcast, print and online media, working alongside the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), which writes the advertising codes. It’s important to understand from the outset what kind of body this is: the ASA is non-statutory, meaning it doesn’t enforce legislation directly, and it’s funded by a levy on the advertising industry itself rather than by government. That sounds like it might be toothless, but its codes closely track existing consumer protection law, and its rulings carry real consequences.
The ASA has also become more proactive rather than purely complaint-led. It runs an Active Ad Monitoring system that uses AI to scan online advertising for likely rule-breaks without waiting for the public to flag it — a system that reportedly scanned around 28 million ads in 2024, with plans to scan considerably more in the following year. Health and beauty advertising is specifically named as one of the sectors the ASA monitors more closely because of its historically poor record of compliance.
How to Make a Complaint
Reporting an advert is done through the ASA’s online complaint form, and it takes only a few minutes to submit. To give a complaint the best chance of being investigated properly, it helps to be specific rather than general:
- Note exactly where and when you saw or heard the ad — the website, the publication, the broadcast slot, or the social platform.
- Capture the ad itself. A screenshot, photo or short video is genuinely useful evidence and speeds up assessment.
- Identify the specific claim or image you object to, rather than a general impression that the product "seems too good to be true." A complaint that names the exact wording — a specific efficacy claim, a before-and-after image, a "clinically proven" statement with no substantiation offered — is far easier for the ASA to act on than a vague one.
- Explain why you think it’s misleading, ideally by reference to the advertising codes’ general principles: adverts must not materially mislead, must be able to substantiate claims, and must not exaggerate what a product can realistically do.
What Happens After You Submit a Complaint
Once a complaint falls within the ASA’s remit, it’s assessed against the advertising codes. Many complaints are resolved informally at this stage — the advertiser is contacted, agrees the issue is fair, and amends or withdraws the ad without a published ruling. Where the issue is more serious or the advertiser disputes it, a formal investigation opens: the ASA writes to the advertiser and asks them to substantiate the claims being made. This is often the point where marketing built on vague testimonials or borrowed research quietly falls apart, because "substantiate" means providing actual evidence, not just asserting it.
A draft recommendation then goes to both the advertiser and the complainant for comment, before the independent ASA Council issues a final adjudication. Rulings are published on the ASA’s website and are genuinely public — anyone can search past adjudications by company or product category before buying, which is worth doing for any health product making a claim that sounds unusually strong.
What the ASA Can — and Can’t — Do to a Non-Compliant Advertiser
This is the part people usually get wrong: the ASA cannot itself issue a fine. What it can do is escalate in stages, and the escalation has real teeth:
| Stage | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Ad amendment or withdrawal | The standard outcome of an upheld complaint — the advertiser must change or pull the ad |
| Published ruling ("name and shame") | The adjudication is published, creating a public, searchable reputational record |
| Ad space sanctions | The ASA can work with media owners, online platforms and search engines to deny space or remove ads from repeat or serious offenders |
| Referral to Trading Standards | For non-broadcast advertising, Trading Standards has statutory powers including prosecution |
| Referral to Ofcom | For broadcast advertising, Ofcom can impose fines or revoke a broadcaster’s licence |
| Referral to the CMA | Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, an adverse ASA ruling can now trigger Competition and Markets Authority enforcement, with fines of up to 10% of a company’s group-wide annual turnover or £300,000, whichever is higher |
That last route is relatively new and matters more than it might first appear: an upheld ASA adjudication can now be treated as an aggravating factor that increases a subsequent CMA fine, which gives a "toothless" self-regulator a genuine escalation path into a statutory penalty for a company that keeps ignoring the rules.
Why This Matters for Health Products Specifically
The ASA’s own recent rulings show a consistent pattern of intervention in this exact space: action against promotion of prescription-only medicines, scrutiny of weight-loss product claims, and rulings against misleading statements about food supplements and novel foods. Health claims sit under extra scrutiny precisely because the potential harm from a misleading one — a false sense of efficacy, a delayed decision to see a licensed professional, money spent on something that does nothing — is higher than for most other product categories. In a recent year, the ASA and CAP together secured the amendment or withdrawal of close to 34,000 adverts across all sectors, the large majority resolved informally rather than through a published ruling — a reminder that most complaints never need to go to a full hearing to have an effect.
The Bottom Line
Reporting a misleading health advert isn’t a symbolic gesture — it’s a structured process with a real regulator, a documented paper trail, and an actual (if indirect) route to a financial penalty for advertisers who won’t stop. If you come across a health product advert making a claim that sounds too strong to be true, screenshot it, note the specific wording, and submit it. It costs nothing, takes a few minutes, and the record of every past ruling is public — so before you buy, it’s also worth checking whether the company you’re about to trust has already had a claim upheld against it.