UK law
Ofcom consults on notification guidance for online safety fees
Ofcom has opened a consultation on technical guidance relating to online safety fees. These fees, which it published its main decisions about earlier this year, will fund Ofcom’s online safety regulation. They will be paid by companies in scope of the Online Safety Act whose ‘qualifying worldwide revenues’ (QWR) meet or exceed a threshold that will be set by the Secretary of State. Companies are required to notify Ofcom that they are liable to pay fees, and the consultation sets out the practicalities of how to do so, and how to provide evidence of their QWR. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary process, Ofcom expects the Notification Regulations to come into force in September 2025. It also expects that the Secretary of State will set the QWR threshold in late 2025. This will trigger the opening of a four-month long window in which firms must notify Ofcom if they will be liable for paying fees in the initial 2026/2027 charging year. The consultation ends on 1 October 2025.
CAP Code extended to ensure consistency in regulation of online ads
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), author of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional marketing (the CAP Code), has extended the remit of the CAP Code. It now applies to non-paid-for online marketing communications targeted at UK consumers by advertisers who are subject to licensing conditions from a UK public authority or other UK public body requiring compliance with the CAP Code – even where the advertiser does not have a UK-registered company address. This amendment brings into scope social media marketing communications targeted at UK consumers by licensed gambling operators on their own channels (sometimes referred to as content marketing), regardless of whether the operators are registered in the UK. The Gambling Commission’s licensing conditions require compliance with the CAP Code and allow the ASA Council to rule consistently on such ads by any licensed gambling operator, no matter where they are based. CAP does not consider that the amendment will extend the Code to other categories of advertisers without a UK-registered address. CAP invites comments on the impact of the remit extension for three months after implementation, before a formal review of the change. The comment period ends on 1 December 2025.
UK government publishes AI assurance roadmap
The UK government has published an AI assurance roadmap which sets out the first steps that the government will take to drive collective action to boost the quality and growth of the UK’s third-party AI assurance market. It says that AI assurance is crucial to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed responsibly and in compliance with the law. By providing ways to measure, evaluate and communicate the trustworthiness of AI systems, assurance can increase confidence in AI systems, supporting AI adoption and economic growth. The first section highlights the steps government will take now to support the third-party assurance market. The next section highlights the key challenges the third-party assurance market currently faces, which these actions aim to address. These relate to quality, skills, information access and innovation. The final section sets out the interventions the government explored to address these challenges. This includes three potential quality assurance models for the third-party AI assurance market, as well as interventions to address skills challenges, information asymmetries and barriers to innovation.
