Sector rules — finance, health, gambling, food and alcohol
Regime-specific restrictions that override general advertising practice, several of them carrying criminal liability.
Anyone marketing regulated products, and any agency or creator working for them. Several of these bind the creator personally, not just the brand.
9 rules · last verified 22 September 2026 · see changes
The rules
The alcohol advertising audience threshold
CAP rule 18.15: no medium may be used to advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25% of its audience is under 18. Rule 18.16: anyone shown drinking must neither be nor seem to be under 25.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The FCA rule that each post must stand alone
Each financial promotion must comply with the rules when considered individually. A post cannot rely on a linked page, a pinned comment or a bio to carry its risk warnings.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
A firm's duty over its affiliates and finfluencers
Firms must take proactive responsibility for how their affiliates communicate financial promotions, including appropriate monitoring and oversight systems.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The follower threshold indicating strong appeal to under-18s
A total of at least 100,000 under-18 follower accounts across social platforms is indicative of strong appeal. Indicative, not determinative — guidance updated 14 October 2025.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The online less-healthy-food advertising restriction
In force 5 January 2026. CAP rule 15.19 bars paying for advertisements for an identifiable less healthy food or drink product to be placed on the internet. Exempt if the payer employs fewer than 250 people.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
Whether a brand's own organic posts are caught by the food restriction
No — posts solely from a company's own social accounts are out of scope, provided no payment is involved in placing them. Paying or gifting an influencer to post is caught, because payment includes non-monetary consideration.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The ban on celebrity or clinician endorsement of medicines
Regulation 289 bans advertisements referring to recommendations by scientists, health care professionals, or people whose celebrity could encourage use. CAP rule 12.18 mirrors it.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The ban on advertising prescription-only medicines to the public
Regulation 284 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 prohibits publishing an advertisement likely to lead to the use of a prescription-only medicine. It is a criminal offence carrying up to two years' imprisonment.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
Criminal penalty for an unapproved financial promotion
Breach of section 21 of FSMA is a criminal offence punishable by up to two years' imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
What people get wrong
Not hypotheticals — these are the three failure modes that recur, and what follows from them.
The firm may be treated as causing the promotion, and the creator commits a criminal offence under section 21 of FSMA carrying up to two years' imprisonment.
Regulation 284 is breached by anything likely to lead to the use of a prescription-only medicine — including "weight-loss injection", "jab" or "GLP-1". Criminal offence, up to two years.
Own-channel organic posts genuinely are out of scope. But paying or gifting an influencer to post is paying for placement — the exact boundary most teams get backwards.
The other four
Knowing the rule is not the same as having a process
Module 22 turns these into the things you actually need: the disclosure wording, the consent flow, the review policy, the sign-off step. Take the free assessment and see where it lands on your path.
Take the free assessmentNothing here is legal advice. Every rule links to the regulator’s own words so you can read them yourself.
