The ASA has received far more complaints then expected since extending its remit to cover advertising on web and social media sites earlier this year.
Marketing Magazine reports that the ASA has received 5,531 complaints about brands’ online marketing communications in the seven months since March 2011.
As a result, the UK Regulatory authority has had to increase its staff 10%.
The majority of complaints are made about small and medium sized businesses and these account for 80% of the total number of complaints for the period (18,369).
The complaints were of the same ilk as those coming from other media channels namely price and availability.
Most of the complaints were received straight after the organization took over the monitoring of online activity.
www.asa.org.uk/
