Assessing industry compliance and the educational impact of Therapeutic Goods Advertising Complaint Resolution Panel (CRP) determinations.

The CRP publishes determinations about whether advertising complaints are in breach of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 &/or the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code 2015 (the regulations). If it determines a complaint is justified it can “request” the advertiser to withdraw or correct the particular claims &/or (for a more serious offence) publish a retraction. If the advertiser fails to indicate an intention to comply the CRP may make a recommendation to the delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Health to “order” compliance. Because of limited resources, the CRP is not able to follow-up compliance with all of its determinations. Regrettably, there is some evidence that non-compliance is not uncommon; also that published determinations made about specific claims may not be taken up by other advertisers making identical claims about similar products. This project will follow-up all CRP determinations of Internet advertisements with meeting dates between July 1 to December 31, 2016 to assess compliance and also whether any new breaches are apparent. In addition, it will search the Internet for identical claims about similar products to determine the educational impact of CRP determinations on other advertisers