The chief executive officer of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK, Jon Mew, has welcomed the government’s consultation on its Online Advertising Programme (OAP), saying that the UK digital advertising industry “wants to play its part in restricting, detecting and disrupting scam ads”.
However, Mew says, “the regulatory coherence that we believe the OAP can deliver on this and other issues is undermined by provisions on ‘fraudulent advertising’ being added to the Online Safety Bill (OSB)”. In Mew’s view, the decision to cover the issue of scam ads in two ways at the same time “creates unnecessary regulatory fragmentation and risks constraining proper policy development” and “undermines the purpose of the OAP and could pre-empt its outcomes”.
IAB UK is also concerned that the widened scope of the Online Safety Bill has not been subject to industry consultation and that it could have unintended consequences for legitimate advertisers, particularly small businesses, if it is applied across the board – Mew stated as follows:
The approach set out today seems at odds with the principles set out in the Government’s Plan for Digital Regulation, which emphasises the importance of drawing on industry expertise to develop effective regulation, and of a coherent and streamlined regulatory landscape.
IAB UK also says that to successfully build an effective, proportionate regulatory framework that supplements the existing system of self-regulation, the OAP should meet five key…
