UK: ASA rules against therapeutic claims on CBD product

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) supported a case against social media and online ads for a CBD skincare range that made both explicit and implicit therapeutic claims for an unregistered product on April 26, 2023.

The social media advertisement said that the product "targets areas of pain," which the ASA believed the customer would interpret as meaning that the creams may cure pain.

The product website also included research into CBD to aid with ailments, and the ASA concluded that the presence and scope of these studies suggested that CBD had value in treating the listed medical disorders.  As a result, the ASA believed that consumers would read references to ongoing CBD research as therapeutic claims for the brand's products to cure certain ailments.

According to the CAP Code, medical claims and indications may be made only for goods authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or under the auspices of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).