Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority banning three major fashion brands in the same cycle for misleading recycled-material claims is not a coincidence; it reflects a deliberate enforcement escalation after years of the ASA publishing guidance that companies largely ignored. The specific problem is the gap between 'made with recycled materials' as a headline claim and the reality that recycled content often represents a small fraction of the garment's composition. The legal exposure for brands is now material: the CMA's greenwashing framework, running parallel to the ASA's advertising rules, carries the ability to impose fines rather than just ban ads. For any UK clothing retailer still using vague sustainability claims as marketing copy, the question is whether their legal team has audited those claims against both sets of rules, because the ASA bans are the warning shot, not the penalty.