United Kingdom

Relx, an e-cigarette company, paid for an ad to be placed on a third-party website. The ad pictured e-cigarettes and discounted pricing information. UK regulations clearly prohibit online advertising of e-cigarettes but allow a manufacturer to provide factual product information such as the name, content, and price of the product on its own websites. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reviewed the ad and concluded that the marketing was not targeted exclusively to the trade and prominently featured four nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. Thus, it had the direct or indirect effect of promoting nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components which were not licensed as medicines. The ASA ordered that the ad not appear again in the form complained about.