Google and Online Advertising Standards Authority

It has been announced today that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will be extending the reach of its influence. Until recently ASA has been limited to policing offline advertising with Google and the Search Marketing sector outside of their regulatory system. However this is set to change as ASA will soon be able to govern web adverts and intervene when an advertisement is either misleading or considered inappropriate.

Adverts that appear on websites will now be regulated by ASA and they will have the authority to go to Google if they disapprove of any advertisement displayed by AdSense or Double Click Exchange.

This expansion of ASA is not only being supported by Google but will also be partly funded by them. Matt Brittin, Google’s UK managing director, has been quoted as saying;

“If people have a complaint about a claim made on a website it’s important that it is properly investigated. We support the ASA’s aims of providing consumer protection and are happy to help get this up and running for the benefit of UK consumers and businesses.”

Google’s active support of ASA’s digital media advertising expansion has been crucial to its success and is a landmark moment for advertising self-regulation. It remains to be seen how Microsoft Bing are responding to this development.

Affiliate banners will need to adhere ASA regulations, which is certain to have an effect on both affiliate marketing networks and also websites displaying advertisements; as more attention will need to be paid to what is displayed on their websites.

The extended remit of ASA for digital media advertising is yet to be ratified but is expected to be fully introduced by the latter part of 2010.

Source: Guardian

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