United Kingdom

A website for Juicemate, an e-cigarette brand, featured a page titled “Vape Affiliate Program”. The webpage featured linked text that people could click to enter their details and receive a unique referral link and discount codes. The page detailed the benefits of becoming an affiliate, which included a 20 per cent commission based on the total order placed with Juicemate using the affiliate link or discount code. The page also listed the names of vape brands whose products affiliates could choose to promote. 

The ASA challenged whether the ad breached the CAP Code by irresponsibly encouraging the promotion of e-cigarettes and related components online, because unlicensed nicotine-containing e-liquids and their components could not be promoted in online media.

Pixus Online Ltd t/a Juicemate said they were not aware that there was an issue with an affiliate programme as they had seen them on other vaping websites. They removed the affiliate webpage on receiving notification of the ASA investigation.

The ASA found the ad encouraged people to become Juicemate Affiliates, who in turn would promote the sale of e-cigarettes and their components on the advertiser’s behalf on social media. The ad had the indirect effect of promoting the sale of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and their components, which were not licensed as medicines in online media, by means of the affiliate programme. By encouraging people to promote the sale of such products on social media, the ad incited prospective affiliates to breach the Code.