Is your clinic advertising compliant?
The Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP) has published new guidance to help registrants maintain compliant advertising across websites, social media, booking platforms and other promotional channels.
The guidance follows observations from the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), alongside the JCCP’s own monitoring, which identified examples of advertising that did not meet current requirements. Particular concerns included direct and indirect references to botulinum toxin and other prescription-only medicines (POMs), as well as insufficient emphasis on the need for a consultation.
Under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, prescription-only medicines must not be advertised to the public. This applies not only to the name of a medicine, such as Botox®, or generic terms such as botulinum toxin, but also to wording, images and pricing structures that indirectly promote its use.
Terms such as “anti-wrinkle injections”, “wrinkle-relaxing treatment”, “Beautox”, “Haytox” and hashtags including “#Botox” and “#Brotox” may all be considered promotional depending on their context. Similarly, advertising treatment according to “one area”, “two areas” or “three areas” is widely understood by the public to refer to botulinum toxin and may therefore breach the rules.Instead, the JCCP recommends consultation-led pricing, making it clear that each patient will receive an individual assessment and that a prescription will only be issued where appropriate.
A tiered approach to clinic websites
For clinics offering services that may involve a POM, the guidance recommends structuring website information across three levels:
- The homepage should provide only a general overview, using wording such as “wrinkle treatments” or promoting a consultation for wrinkle concerns.
- A second page can explain the consultation process and make clear that all suitable options will be considered. The consultation may or may not result in a medicine being prescribed.
- A third page may contain balanced, factual information about the medicine, including its licensed indications, risks and benefits. This is also where relevant price information should appear.
Information about a POM should be drawn from authoritative sources, such as its Patient Information Leaflet or Summary of Product Characteristics.
The JCCP warns that this tiered approach cannot be replicated on social media. Posts and digital advertisements should be treated in the same way as a website homepage and limited to high-level information.
Educational content is not automatically exempt
Practitioners should also be cautious about content presented as educational. Posts explaining how botulinum toxin works, its potential benefits, treatment indications or complications may still be considered advertising if they promote a POM within the wider context of a clinic’s marketing.
Before-and-after photographs and links to booking pages can increase the likelihood of educational content being interpreted as promotional. Each post will be judged according to its overall effect rather than its stated purpose.
It is not only about botulinum toxin
Although botulinum toxin is frequently associated with advertising breaches, the restrictions apply to all POMs. In aesthetic and wellness practice, these may include:
- Hyaluronidase and “dissolve and refill” services
- Intramuscular corticosteroid injections marketed for hay fever
- Prescription-only vitamin B12 preparations
- Local anaesthetic injections
- Prescription weight-loss medicines
- Intravenous drips, including 0.9% saline
- Weight loss injections
Check your booking system
Independent booking platforms that can be viewed directly by the public must not offer procedures involving POMs for booking. They should only allow patients to book consultations or treatments that do not involve prescription-only medicines.
Where a booking facility sits within a compliant clinic website, a POM procedure may only be made available to a patient who has already been assessed by a prescriber and authorised to receive that specific treatment. The booking process must make it clear that the procedure cannot be requested without a prior consultation.
Non-prescribing practitioners should also state clearly that patients require a face-to-face consultation with a separate prescribing colleague to assess their suitability.
What happens when advertising is non-compliant?
The JCCP routinely audits registrants’ websites and social media activity. Where it identifies potentially non-compliant advertising, it will contact the registrant and ask for the material to be amended or removed within an appropriate timeframe.
Continued failure to meet the expected standards could affect JCCP registration, while non-compliant activity may also be referred to regulators including the Advertising Standards Authority or Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Clinic owners and practitioners are therefore being encouraged to review their websites, social channels, price lists, promotions and booking systems now.
Before publishing any marketing material, ask whether it directly or indirectly promotes a POM, uses language patients associate with botulinum toxin, includes potentially problematic pricing or offers, or encourages patients to seek a particular medicine rather than a professional consultation.
If the answer may be yes, the content should be checked carefully against the JCCP policy and relevant ASA, CAP and MHRA guidance before it is published.