Compliance
Where the rules come from
Who writes the rules, who enforces them and what they say in their own words. Read it before planning paid media, creator work or a new landing page.
Who makes the rules
Three regulators share this ground. They issue joint notices and refer cases to one another, so a problem with one is a problem with all three.
CAP and the ASA
The Committee of Advertising Practice writes the UK advertising rules, the CAP Code. The Advertising Standards Authority enforces them, investigates complaints and publishes rulings. Its sanctions include having ads and whole social accounts removed, and referral to the two statutory regulators.
MHRA
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is the statutory regulator for medicines. It enforces the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, advises the ASA on rulings, and can use formal legal powers where advertising puts public health at risk.
GPhC
The General Pharmaceutical Council regulates pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies in Great Britain. It holds the pharmacy owner and the Superintendent Pharmacist accountable for marketing, and can act against the pharmacy, the owner, the superintendent or all three.
Note the second wording. The law does not say “names a medicine”. It says “likely to lead to the use of” one. That is why an ad can break the rules without naming anything, and why the ASA judges the overall impression of an ad rather than hunting for a drug name.
The enforcement notices
The regulators’ own list of what not to do. Work from the September 2025 version.
CAP, the MHRA and the GPhC issued a joint enforcement notice on prescription only medicines used for weight management in April 2025, and an updated one in September 2025. The update added the list of words and images below. The notices restate existing rules rather than adding new ones, so there was no grace period and there is none now.
The notice applies to every channel we use: paid social on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, organic posts on our own channels, paid search on Google, influencer marketing and affiliate ads. The CAP Code’s remit also covers our website, email and text messages, posters, leaflets and direct mail.
Remove from every ad
- Named medicines, by brand name, generic name or active ingredient
- Descriptors the public reads as a prescription medicine. The notice lists “Weight Loss Injection”, “Weight Loss Pen”, “Obesity Treatment Jab”, “GLP-1” and abbreviations such as “SemaPen”
- Enough background detail that it is clear the product is a prescription medicine
- Imagery the public reads as an injection pen, whether or not it carries a name
- Links from an ad to a landing page that promotes a prescription medicine
What the notice says to do
- “Promote the consultation, not the POM”
- If a medicine is being promoted, make sure it is one that can lawfully be advertised to the public
- Keep the page an ad lands on as clean as the ad itself
The notices name the medicines CAP has seen advertised: Saxenda, Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Mounjaro, Mysimba and Victoza. None of these words appears in anything we publish. The notices also set out the enforcement machinery. The ASA’s AI based Active Ad Monitoring system scans for breaches, sanctions include removal of content and social media accounts, and advertisers can be referred to the MHRA or the GPhC for statutory action.
The ASA’s advice pages
Short, written for marketers and updated after each round of rulings. Easier to work from than the full Code.
Weight control: prescription only medicines
This page goes further than the enforcement notice. It adds these to the list of things that point at a prescription medicine:
- Colloquial terms such as “skinny jab” and “weight loss injections”
- References to weekly dosing, such as a “once a week” treatment
- Prices “per pen”, and special offers or time limited prices that only apply to a medicine
- Urgency such as “Run, don’t walk”
- Partial pens and vials, as well as whole pens, branded or not
- Before and after images
- Content suggesting a body size is undesirable, or that people who are not overweight need treatment
It confirms that “a consultation for weight loss” can be acceptable, provided the ad does not imply that the likely outcome is a prescription medicine. It also says that where an affiliate scheme rewards people for bringing in new business, the ASA holds both the advertiser and the affiliate responsible.
Weight control: general
These rules apply to every weight loss ad, whether or not a medicine is involved.
| Rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| 13.9 | Do not claim people can lose a precise amount of weight in a stated period, or lose weight from a specific part of the body. |
| 13.10 | A featured individual’s result is allowed only with the timeframe stated and only if it is representative. More than 2lb a week is unlikely to be acceptable for people who are overweight rather than obese. |
| 13.8 | Do not state or imply that dieters cannot fail, or that weight loss is permanent. “Guaranteed easy weight loss” and “You will lose several lbs in just a few weeks!” are the ASA’s own examples of what fails. |
| 13.2 | References to obesity are restricted to services supervised by a suitably qualified health professional. |
| 13.3 | Weight loss products and programmes must neither target nor appeal to under 18s, and must never suggest that being underweight is desirable. |
| 13.1 and 13.4 | Efficacy claims need rigorous trials on people. Testimonials are not substantiation. |
| 3.47 to 3.50 | Before and after photos count as testimonials. Hold signed, dated proof that they are genuine. |
The MHRA Blue Guide
The MHRA’s handbook on the law of medicines advertising. Two parts are written for services like ours.
The Blue Guide, Advertising and Promotion of Medicines in the UK, is in its third edition, last revised in November 2020. Most of it is addressed to pharmaceutical companies. Section 7.3 and Appendix 6 are addressed to clinics, pharmacies and anyone else whose service may lead to a prescription.
Section 7.3: promoting a service
Clinics and other organisations “may promote the service they provide” and may give a balanced overview of the treatment options for a condition. The material “should not highlight the qualities of a specific prescription only medicine”, because that encourages people to ask for a particular treatment. The guide’s own example is a cosmetic clinic, which may advertise “treatment for lines and wrinkles” but never the name of the medicine. Our equivalent is weight loss treatment with a coach and a clinical team, never the medicine.
Appendix 6: websites and social media for treatment services
Appendix 6 is the MHRA’s guidance for online clinics and pharmacies, written so they can promote a service without promoting a medicine. It is the standard any landing page or funnel we build is held to.
| Where | What Appendix 6 says |
|---|---|
| Home page | Focus on the condition and the service. No named prescription medicines anywhere on it: not in links, prices, hover text or small print. |
| Inner pages | May carry factual, non promotional information about specific medicines, set within a fair overview of all the treatment options. “X is used to treat…”, never “X, the fastest treatment for…”. |
| The consultation | Make it clear that the visitor is being offered a medical consultation, and that it may or may not lead to a prescription. |
| Prices | The home page may show indicative prices for the condition, such as the cost of a consultation. A factual price list for medicines belongs on inner pages, without product claims and without steering people to choose on price. No special offers on medicines. Free medicine is never permitted. |
| Buttons | Buttons that invite a consultation are fine. “Buy now”, “Add to basket” and the like are not, on any site offering prescription treatments. |
| Web addresses | No medicine names in the core URL. |
| Sponsored links | May promote the service. Must not mention specific prescription medicines. |
| Social media | The same prohibition applies. Any post saying a named prescription medicine is available from us is an advertisement. Factual comment on the news is allowed, but not as a way to promote a medicine. |
| Unlicensed medicines | Must not be mentioned at all, and a treatment that involves one cannot be called “clinically proven”. |
The MHRA says it focuses enforcement on home pages, so that someone browsing for general information is never presented with promotion of a prescription medicine. Inner pages that a visitor chooses to open get more latitude, as long as they are balanced. The ASA takes a similar line: a company’s own inner pages may get a limited exemption, but never the home page or a landing page an ad points to.
The GPhC’s online pharmacy guidance
About how an online pharmacy operates rather than how it advertises. It matters to marketing for two reasons.
The GPhC’s Guidance for registered pharmacies providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet, was reissued in February 2025. It sets out what the regulator expects before a prescription medicine is supplied online.
Who answers for an ad
The guidance expects the pharmacy owner and the Superintendent Pharmacist to “follow the law and guidance on the advertising and promotion of medicines”. If an ad breaks the rules, the GPhC can act against the pharmacy, the owner, the superintendent or all three, and can investigate the fitness to practise of every pharmacist involved. The people signing off our marketing are accountable in person, which is why sign off is never a formality.
Safeguards our funnel has to respect
The guidance lists medicines used for weight management among those that must not be prescribed from a questionnaire alone. Before any supply:
- The platform is arranged so that there is an appropriate consultation with the prescriber first. People may state a preferred medicine, but the platform must make clear that the decision is for the prescriber and the person together.
- The prescriber checks identity and does not rely on the questionnaire. They verify what the person has told them another way: two way communication, clinical records, or the person’s GP.
- The person gives their GP’s contact details and consent to contact them.
- The prescriber independently verifies the person’s weight, height or BMI, by video consultation, in person, from clinical records or through the GP. The guidance says a phone call is not appropriate for weight loss medicines.
So our marketing never
- Sells the absence of a check: “no video call”, “questionnaire only”, “approved in minutes”
- Sells speed or ease of getting a medicine. “No GP or pharmacy visits, just a quick online consultation” was a line the ASA cited against Juniper
- Lets a funnel choose the medicine before the consultation
- Treats the assessment as a formality to get past
And always
- Describes the assessment as the thing that decides, as in rule 6
- Says a consultation may lead to treatment, or to a different plan
- Treats the checks as part of the care. That is what a whole team in your corner looks like
Platform policies
Google and Meta have their own healthcare rules. They sit on top of UK law, are often stricter, and are enforced by machines.
An ad can be fully compliant with the CAP Code and still be rejected, and a serious breach can take the whole account down with it. Anyone running paid media for us needs to know both policies.
Google Ads: Healthcare and medicines
In the UK, online pharmacies may advertise only if they are registered with the GPhC and certified by Google. Telemedicine providers need LegitScript certification as well as Google’s. In both cases prescription medicines cannot be promoted in ads, on landing pages or in the keywords an ad is bought against.
Google treats breaches of its drug policies as egregious. Accounts can be suspended without warning, and it says reinstatement happens only in compelling circumstances.
Meta: Drugs and pharmaceuticals
Ads promoting prescription medicines are allowed only from advertisers certified by LegitScript and authorised by Meta, and only to people in the United States, Canada or New Zealand. In the UK that means no ad for a prescription medicine at all, however it is phrased. Ads that promote a telehealth service in general need no authorisation. Nothing in this area may target anyone under 18.