Business-to-business marketing

If your business advertises products, like goods or services to other businesses, there are specific rules you must follow. These rules also apply to advertisements to businesses or consumers where you make comparisons that identify a competitor, or products offered by a competitor.

The Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 apply to business-to-business marketing and comparative advertising to businesses or consumers. These regulations prohibit the use of misleading advertising when selling to business customers. They also set out specific conditions that must be met if your advertisements to businesses or consumers include any comparisons with a competitor.

The regulations cover all advertising methods including radio and television broadcasts, social media and internet advertising, and other marketing and promotional activities such as oral representations, details in catalogues or websites, and product descriptions on packaging.

What are the legal requirements for business-to-business advertising?

When promoting a product to businesses, you must ensure that your advertising is not misleading. All information you provide about a product must be factual and correct.

You should carefully consider any claims you make about the:

• Characteristics of a product, including its availability, composition, specifications, and expected results of use. Full product characteristics can be found in the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (BPRs).
• Price and how it is calculated.
• Conditions under which the product is supplied or provided.
• Nature and attributes of you, the advertiser, such as your identity, qualifications, awards or distinctions.

In your advertising to businesses, you must not:

• Include any false statements.
• Conceal or omit any important information.
• Make false promises, such as stating you will do something you have no intention of doing.
• Create a false impression, even if everything stated is literally true.

You must also follow similar rules when advertising to consumers. Read more about the rules for describing your products and services to consumers.

What are the legal requirements for comparative advertising?

If you want to advertise to businesses and consumers by comparing your product or business to a competitor, there are additional rules you must follow.

You may only use comparative advertising if you comply with the conditions listed in the comparative advertising checklist below.

The advertisement must:

• Not be considered misleading under the regulations. Refer to the legal requirements for business-to-business advertising (provided above) for what constitutes misleading advertising.
• Not be misleading under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
• Only compare products that meet the same needs or are intended for the same purpose.
• Objectively compare one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative feature(s) of those products (which may include price).
• Not create confusion among businesses, either between the advertiser and competitor or between trade marks (or similar) of the advertiser’s products and those of a competitor.
• Not discredit, denigrate or take unfair advantage of a competitor's trade mark (or similar).
• For products with a particular designation of origin, only be compared against products with the same designation of origin.
• Not take unfair advantage of the reputation of a competitor’s trade mark (or similar) or of the designation of origin of competing products.
• Not present products as imitations or replicas of products bearing a protected trade mark or trade name.

If you fail to comply with the rules on advertising, you could be committing a criminal offence.

You can download a flowchart (PDF,45K) from Trading Standards to check if your advertising complies with the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations.

For further help and advice on business-to-business or comparative advertising, contact the Trading Standards Service’s Consumerline at Telephone: 0300 123 6262.