UK advertising watchdog says a leading homeopathic charity 'breached marketing rules'

THE advertising watchdog in UK has said that a leading homeopathic charity breached marketing rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority has ordered Homeopathy UK that it cannot refer to conditions such as depression, diabetes and infertility on its website, reported The Times.

Homeopathy UK breached marketing rules by potentially discouraging 'essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought', the watchdog ruled on Wednesday (19).

Disappointed by the ruling, the charity said that it treated people who wished to use alternative or complementary medicine as 'incapable of making informed choices'.

Homeopathy UK, formerly the British Homeopathic Association, hosts a 'conditions directory' on its website with 'a list of conditions where homeopathy can help'.

Each condition had a clickthrough link to an article written by a doctor registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) who had applied homeopathic methods, the newspaper report said.

"Although the articles had been written by GMC-registered professionals, the ad and the articles to which it linked referred to homeopathy in general, rather than treatment by a specific individual,"  the ruling said.

The watchdog said that it understood that there were no minimum professional qualifications required to practise homeopathy.

“As a charity committed to patient choice, we are concerned about the damaging effect a ruling like this could have on the entire complementary and alternative health sector," Homeopathy UK chief executive Cristal Skaling-Klopstock, told The Times.

An ASA spokesman has said that it’s really important that advertisers don’t make claims without evidence, and that’s especially true for medical products.