The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has responded to a consultation launched by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) at the end of last year, seeking feedback on legislation to further restrict advertising of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products.
The restrictions aim to reduce children’s exposure to HFSS product advertising on TV and online with a UK-wide policy that will see the introduction of a 9pm TV watershed for HFSS products and a restriction of paid for HFSS advertising online. All on-demand programme services (ODPS) under the jurisdiction of the UK will be included in the TV watershed.
Following last year’s delay in the implementation, the restrictions are due to come into effect in October 2025.
The ACS has raised concerns that local shops may be unfairly targeted under the new rules.
Businesses with 249 employees or fewer that pay to advertise HFSS products will be exempt from the HFSS restrictions. This definition will also outline that a company’s number of employees internationally count towards their total number of employees and that franchises are treated as part of the franchisor business and not as a separate business.
In its submission, ACS urged the government to exempt all businesses with 249 employees or fewer based on the employee count of the individual business.
ACS Chief Executive, James Lowman, said: “Social media is a common tool used by retailers to communicate with their customers about the products and services that they have available in store. We are concerned that the proposals to further restrict HFSS advertising will negatively and disproportionately impact local shops that use the online space to market their business.
“In other areas of Government policy, a retailer trading under a symbol group is recognised as a small business and this is based on the number of employees in that individual business, rather than the symbol group as a whole, but this isn’t the case with these restrictions. The inclusion of symbol group operators under a broad umbrella term of a franchise agreement will result in thousands of small convenience stores being unfairly penalised by the restrictions as it will undermine their ability to reach their local customers and trade competitively.”
NAM Implications:
- Treating franchisees as a separate business under HFSS regulations will be a big ask for bureaucratic government.
- Despite repeated HFSS can-kicking to date by the government…
- …if small convenience stores want to be excempt, someone has to shout louder.
