Making a complaint

Fill in the form below to submit your complaint. Please read the instructions carefully and take time to ensure that you provide us with all the information we need to process your complaint efficiently.

(*) indicates a required field. You must complete these fields before submitting the form.

Complaints Form

Complaint Form

Step 1: Your details

Please fill in the fields below taking care to ensure that the information is accurate. Providing your telephone number and e-mail address makes it easier for us to contact you should we require further information from you.

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Postcode must be uppercase e.g. WC1V 6QT
(including area code)

Step 2: Are you complaining on behalf of your company or organisation about the advertising of another company or organisation?

If the answer is "no", please go straight to step 3.

If the answer is "yes", click the YES button for further instructions.

Please read the following very carefully and provide the relevant details below:

We require industry complainants, wherever possible, to resolve their differences between themselves or through their trade or professional organisations (where applicable). If this avenue of resolution might be available to you, we suggest you try it before submitting your complaint to us.

To deter tit-for-tat disagreements between competing organisations, we will require you to provide good grounds for investigating your complaint. Speculative challenges without evidence or good supporting information to back them up are unlikely to be accepted. Please bear this in mind when describing your complaint later.

Before we can process your complaint, we will need confirmation that no legal action in connection with this subject is underway or will be initiated by you. We do not get involved in matters that are the subject of legal action: it would not be right for us to take decisions that might prejudice the outcome of legal proceedings.

In addition, we will need your confirmation that your company or organisation agrees to be named as the complainants. Non-public complaints are only accepted on a named basis. If we publish a report of our findings on your complaint, all those involved will be named on our website.

If you wish to proceed, please tick the box below to confirm you have granted permission for your company or organisation to be named as the complainants and that no legal action underway or will be initiated by your company or organisation in connection with your complaint.

If you understand the information above and are happy to be named as the complainants, please enter your company or organisation name in the box below and proceed to step 3:


I agree with the above terms.

Step 3: Where and when did you see the advertisement?

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NOTE: If the ad was on TV or radio, please include the station name. If the ad was a poster, include the street and town where you saw it. For newspapers and magazine ads, name the title where it appeared and the page number.
(Max 1500 characters)
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NOTE: If the ad was on TV or radio, please include the time and date of broadcast. If the ad was a poster, include the date seen. For newspapers and magazine ads provide the publication date.
(Max 500 characters)

Step 4: Who were the advertisers and what product were they advertising?

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Note: for complaints about products bought from television shopping channels, you must name the product.

Step 5: Your Complaint

Please describe as carefully as possible why you object to the advertisement. For example, if you believe that certain claims are misleading, please identify the claims and explain why they might mislead.

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(Max 5000 characters - approximately 800 words)
Characters remaining: 5000

Step 6: Do you have a copy (or the original) of the advertisement and/or a weblink to the advertisement that you can send us?

If the answer is "NO", please ensure that you have provided all the relevant details requested under steps 3 and 4 above, check the 'no' box below and submit your complaint now by pressing the 'Submit' button below.

If the answer is "YES", please ensure that you have provided all the relevant details requested under steps 3 and 4 above, check the 'YES' box below and submit your complaint now by pressing the 'Submit' button below. You will then be prompted for details of attachments.

Attach files and/or weblink

You can include the full web address of the site where you saw the advertisement and upload up to three files.

We accept only the following file types:

  • JPEG (or JPG) image files
  • GIF image files
  • PNG image files
  • TIFF image files
  • BMP bitmap image files
  • Word documents
  • PDF documents

Providing us with the original advertisement, or a good-quality electronic version, can help us process your complaint quickly. However, providing poor quality or incomplete copies of advertisements will cause delays.

If you are able to electronically attach a complete, good quality copy of the advertisement (preferably in a jpeg or other popular file format) please do so using the "attachment" boxes provided below.

Alternatively, you can specify a weblink to the advertisement (useful if your complaint refers to material on a website) by identifying it in the URL box below. Please note that we must have the web address in full.

Please bear in mind that we always require a full and complete version of the advertisement. All of the text, including the smallprint, must be legible on the version you supply.

If your complaint relates to a mailing, we will need the envelope in which the mailing arrived together with all of its contents. We would therefore recommend that you print out a hard copy of the confirmation page (which will appear after you click the Submit button, attach the whole of the original mailing and send it to us by post at:

The Complaints Reception Team
Advertising Standards Authority
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6QT.

If your complaint relates to a commercial e-mail, we will require a version with the 'to' and 'from' headings plus the subject header.

Step 7: How we use your data

To comply with the Data Protection Act, processing by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the Advertising Standards Authority (Broadcast) Ltd (ASA(B)), Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Ltd (BCAP) is covered by notifications with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We shall use the information you have given us to deal with your complaint. If your complaint falls under the remit of a different regulatory body, we will normally pass it on to that body.

If you are seeking suppression from an advertiser’s database or have not received goods or a refund, we will disclose your identity and pass the details of your complaint to the advertiser so it can take action.

We will not sell, rent or exchange your details with any other organisation.

Step 8: Tell us how we’ve done and stay in touch

We would like you to be available to take part in the ASA’s customer satisfaction research. On our behalf, an independent research company contacts complainants by post (and advertisers by phone). Please tick here if you do NOT want to participate in that research .

We would like you to keep in touch with ASA activities not related to your complaint, such as consumer events and the publication of reports. Please tick here if you do NOT want to receive these communications by post or phone .

We also offer a range of regular e-mails about ASA adjudications and advertising regulation that you may like to register for at www.asa.org.uk/keepmeinformed. Through our website you can update your profile and the e-mails you receive at any time.

To view our full Privacy Policy please click here

Step 9: Final check and submit

Please check your entries carefully. When you are happy that everything is correct, please click the SUBMIT button below to formally register your complaint with us.

After clicking submit, details of your complaint are submitted to the ASA, along with any attachments you have included.

Depending on the size of the files you have attached and the speed of your connection, this make take some time.

Please be patient.

Spinning disc indicating upload in progress Please wait while the details of your complaint are submitted to the ASA, along with any attachments you have included. Depending on the size of the files you have attached and the speed of your connection, this make take some time. Please be patient.

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