Topics to be covered will include:
- After a quick recap of the changes being implemented in 2025 by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, we'll have a deeper dive into the new Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) guidance around both reference pricing and drip pricing, as well as the new regime governing fake reviews.
- We'll also look back at the guidance issued by the CMA following the completion of their investigation into the fashion sector, as well as their reasons for closing their investigation into Unilever's environmental claims for its FMCG products.
- Turning to the future for green claims, we'll consider the changes being ushered in by both the EU Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition and the proposed Green Claims Directive.
- Artificial Intelligence remains a key concern for the advertising industry, and we'll analyse the implications of the EU's new AI Act, as well as developments arising from data privacy regulations in the AdTech sector.
- With the growth of advertiser funded programming on subscriber VOD channels, we'll explore the new opportunities that are now possible for long-form content, as well as the treatment of spot advertising on non-linear channels.
- Finally, we'll look at some of the more interesting and controversial ASA decisions of 2024, including the greater tolerance shown to hard-hitting ads in the charity sector, and some back-tracking over considerations of objectification of women.
Your panel this year will be regular stalwarts, Brinsley Dresden and Geraint Lloyd-Taylor, Co-Heads of the Advertising & Marketing Sector Focus Group; Jo Farmer, Joint Managing Partner; Bryony Long, Co-Head of the Data, Privacy & Cyber Group; and this year, they'll be joined by Jen Dinmore, who recently joined us after 10 years at the Competition & Markets Authority, where she was Director of Consumer Protection.