ASA changes handling of competitor complaints

December 13, 2011

The Advertising Standards Authority is changing its approach to handling competitor complaints, as it struggles with an explosion in its workload folloiwng the extension of its remit to cover almnost all digital media in March 2011.

The ASA says that from now on, advertisers making a complaint about another advertiser will usually be required to provide evidence that they have tried to resolve their complaints with their competitor, before the regulator will agree to take on the complaint.

There has been a marked rise in competitor complaints over the past few years, many over trivial or arcane points, in part because companies have discovered that complaining to the ASA can potentially embarass rivals and force them to waste resources defending their advertising and marketing communications.

The ASA admits that "there may be rare occasions when a competitor complainant will have a good reason not to correspond with an advertiser. In these cases we will retain the discretion to bypass this procedure, if we believe the complainant raises a potentially serious breach of the Advertising Code, or if there are other good reasons to believe that inter-party resolution of the complaint is not appropriate."

Complaints to the ASA by companies about rivals is particularly common in telecommunications, retail and the estate agency sector.

The ASA says that, in general, competitors will need to follow the following steps:

1. A competitor who wishes to make a complaint should raise their concerns with the advertiser, ideally by registered post, or by another means of communication which will guarantee swift receipt by the advertiser. The complaint must provide an appropriate degree of detail in relation to the claim and medium in which it appeared, together with the factual basis for the complaint.

2. The complaint should, ordinarily, be signed or authorised by a suitably authorised senior officer of the competitor complainant (e.g. CEO, Legal, Marketing or Regulatory Director), who takes responsibility for the accuracy of its content, and should be addressed to a senior officer or other appropriate contact of the advertiser.

3. If the complaint is about an on-line marketing communication, the competitor who complains should obtain a screen shot of the page or pages that relate to the complaint or otherwise secure a cached copy of the website.

4. The competitor complainant should allow five working days for a substantive response. If, at the end of this period, the advertiser has not opened a substantive dialogue or the parties cannot reach an agreement, the complainant may then submit a complaint to us.

5. When submitting the complaint to the ASA, a copy of the registered letter setting out the concerns should be submitted, with a copy of the complete response (if any) from the advertiser.

The ASA says: "We are confident that this change will benefit advertisers, consumers and the ASA but we will monitor the process over the coming months to ensure it is having a positive impact."