ASA sees more than 5,000 complaints about online ads in first six months

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has seen more than 5,000 complaints relating to online advertisements since its remit changed to include regulation over adverts on web sites on 1 March.

Speaking at a Westminster Forum event, the group's chief executive Guy Parker said that the level of complaints, and subsequent cases it has opened, showed the new system has been welcomed by internet users.

"We've seen 5,531 complaints in first six months and taken on 5,165 cases, which has been a lot of work. This is a very good response and shows that people are coming to us to seek redress due to concerns with adverts they are seeing on web sites," he said.

"Most complaints relate to misleading adverts and 85 per cent of our cases relate to SMEs, rather than big firms. There has been a gradual decline in recent months but it's still higher than we predicted."

Parker also revealed that the telecoms industry is one of the most complained-about industries, often in relation to confusing deals for smartphones and contracts.

However, European policy manager for Facebook Luc Delaney said that the firm feels the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code used to regulate online advertisements is out of date and is hampering the social networking giant from innovating with new advertising styles.

"The code was designed for mass marketing, for broadcasting, billboards and magazines. Yet 27 per cent of ad spend is now digital, the majority of which is highly targeted and personalised, and so the code doesn't allow us to deploy new advertising models we are coming up with," he said.

The ability of the ASA to regulate against firms that do break the code was also called into question. Marina Palomba, the general legal counsel at marketing firm McCann Worldgroup, argued that offenders get off "scott free" because the group doesn't have the ability to fine those infringing the code.

The ASA recently introduced new guidelines for broadband advertising under which internet service providers (ISPs) must ensure that 10 per cent of customers can receive the speeds it is touting, a level that has been criticised as being far too low.