The UK is introducing restrictions on junk food ads from January – but there are problems
The UK is set to introduce new laws from 5 January 2026 that will significantly affect the implementation of sponsorship deals for less healthy food and drink products.
The rules are complex and have wide-ranging implications for sports rights holders and sponsors, but won’t apply equally to everyone, says legal firm Lewis Silkin.
Under the new restrictions, online advertising, which includes paid-for online advertisements for identifiable less healthy food and drink products, will be prohibited in the UK.
January will also see the introduction of TV watershed restrictions. Under these restrictions, ads for identifiable less healthy products must not appear on TV or regulated video-on-demand platforms between 5:30 am and 9:00 pm.
Foods and drinks will be assessed using the UK government’s Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM). Products scoring above certain thresholds, and within particular categories of products, will then be classified as ‘less healthy’.
Most, but not all, products high in fat sugar salt (HFSS) will also be classified as less healthy foods or drinks.
Exemptions
Notably, there are several exemptions where the new restrictions will not apply, Lewis Silkin said.
“Ads featuring the name or logo of a well-known brand associated with less healthy products, but not the product itself, are likely to be exempt. There has been some confusion about this point, but we are waiting for new regulations to exempt and define ‘brand advertising’,” the firm said.
Advertisements placed by a food/drink business itself on its own media channels are not covered by the online restrictions. “This rule should also allow stadium owners to advertise their in-venue food and beverage offering, provided this advertising isn’t promoting sponsors’ or others’ products and that sponsor/third party hasn’t paid for that privilege as part of the sponsorship or supply deal,” Lewis Silkin said.
There is also an exemption for SME food/drink businesses, but this is unlikely to benefit any significant sponsor.
“Any online advertising of less healthy products which is delivered by a rights-holder as part of a sponsorship deal commitment will be caught by the new rules – that is, the advertising has been paid for by the sponsoring brand via the rights fee, or in-kind consideration,” Lewis Silkin said.
“TV advertising or programme sponsorship for less healthy products which relate to a sports sponsorship deal, will also be subject to the watershed restrictions. This is most relevant for rights-holders selling bumper ads to coverage of their events as part of a sponsorship package, or when clearing TV ads for their sponsor.”
If the sponsor has a low-calorie or low-fat brand which isn’t classified as a less healthy food, it’s possible that a workaround using that brand could be agreed upon with sponsors.
New rules could lead to odd results
Given that brand advertising will likely be exempt, and “owned media” is exempt, this will lead to some odd results, Lewis Silkin said. It provided several examples where problems could arise:
- A rights-holders’ website page that lists all sponsors and only shows the logos of the relevant brand(s) (even if that logo is associated very closely with an in-scope product) should be permitted.
- A social post which is delivered as a sponsorship right and which shows an athlete consuming the sponsors’ in-scope product is likely to be prohibited in the UK.
- Images of athletes drinking an in-scope product after competition, may be acceptable if used within pure editorial contexts by the rights-holder, and without commitment for such use to the sponsor, but if the sponsor is guaranteed certain online coverage of such images, this may well be prohibited.
- A team title sponsorship may be acceptable under the anticipated exemption for brand advertising, but images of the actual product itself, shown in online ads and social posts etc of the rights-holder, may not be acceptable if this is a paid-for contractual commitment.
