The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has announced an extension of the Advertising Standards Agency’s (ASA) remit to include digital advertising from March 2011.

The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP code) will apply to online marketing communications across all sectors, businesses and organisations regardless of size. The extension is said to be in response to formal recommendation from a cross-section of the UK industry.

The ASA’s new remit will include advertisers’ communications on their own websites as well as marketing communications in other non-paid for spaces, such as social media sites. The ASA have assured that journalistic and editorial content will be excluded.

The proposed extension has had a mixed reaction, provoking criticism from those in the industry.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) recognise the importance of protecting the online community but have raised a number concerns about the extension. Consumers have come to expect a free online dialogue on social media sites, so the definition of advertising would need to be scoped in order to avoid censoring citizen participation.

They are also apprehensive about changes to the CAP code and the way the extended remit has been planned. Changes affecting how the public relations profession conducts business should go through close consultation with the chartered body. The changes are significant for PR, marketing and social media professionals and the CIPR believes the ASA should work closely with them to develop fair regulations that support existing frameworks.

Earlier this year, the CIPR approached the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), which is represented on the CAP and were given the impression that the views of the PR industry would be heard. Ann Mealor, acting CEO of CIPR, said: “We are disappointed this action has been taken without our involvement. We are writing to the ASA regarding our concerns and advocating the need for closer working relationships on this issue.”

Eversheds, an international law firm, acknowledge that the decision fills a gap, but questions how the watchdog will deal with the changes. They point out that a large number of new complaints will be made and the ASA may not have the resources to cope. In addition, it will be a challenge to effectively regulate fast-moving environments such as Twitter, when complaints can take months to resolve.