Clifford Chance

In its recent decision the UK advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints against Supreme CBD Ltd (Supreme CBD) for four posts on X (formerly Twitter) which were not obviously identifiable as advertisements and making medical claims that a food supplement CBD product could treat insomnia and anxiety.

The decision concerned former footballers Matt Le Tissier and John Hartson, both current and former brand ambassadors of Supreme CBD respectively, and the both of whom had acted as brand ambassadors for Supreme CBD and both of whom has made separate social media posts on X to promote the CBD product. Specifically:

• Mr Hartson claimed that Supreme CBD's product was "magic" and helps "you sleep so much better with less anxiety".
• Mr Le Tissier posted a video on social media claiming the CBD product was a "game changer for people with anxiety / depression any aches / pain or insomnia".

The ASA investigated the posts for not making clear their commercial nature and for making unsubstantiated medical claims. The ASA held that the social media posts breached the UK advertising codes on the grounds that the posts lacked clear identifiers to signal to viewers the commercial nature of the marketing communications (e.g. #ad). Further, the ASA held that the former footballers both had a financial agreement in place with Supreme CBD and had failed to disclose the fact that they were promoting products via social media without clearly disclosing their paid relationship. Indeed, the ASA raised the fact that both of the former footballers were featured in an "Ambassadors" section on Supreme CBD's website.

The owner of Supreme CBD, Athony Fowler, was also held to have been in breach of the UK advertising codes for failing to disclose his ownership interest in the company when responding to a product enquiry via social media. Lastly, the posts made claims implying the CBD products could prevent, treat, or cure anxiety, insomnia, and depression, which is prohibited for food supplements. For the above reasons, the ASA held that each of Mr Fowler, Mr Le Tissier and Mr Hartson had breached the UK advertising codes and the posts were removed form social media.

Takeaways

The above case reinforces the ASA's approach to ensuring that businesses and influencers act transparently when posting marketing communications on social media, not only by clearly signifying to viewers that any posted content is an advertisement but also by ensuring that posts do not make any medical or health claims in respect of products that have not satisfied the relevant regulatory requirements to be listed as a medicinal product.

Key stakeholders operating in the CBD, food supplement and health space as well as any businesses that use social media and influencers to market their products and services, should take note of this recent decision and ensure to speak with legal specialists before posting marketing communications if in doubt.   

Further Reading

Chck out these previous articles

• Pot Luck: Marketing Cannabis Based Products for Medicinal Use in the UK
• Cannabis-based food products
• Cannabis: The legal framework for offering and marketing medicinal products and consumer goods