We have published the August/September 2020 edition of our Digest, covering legal and regulatory developments from the last few weeks relevant to advertising, marketing and brand-owning businesses. As usual, for each item we provide a succinct summary accompanied by a link to the full text of the relevant official source.

We cover a wide variety of regulatory interventions this month including the ICO fining a company for spam texts, ASA statements on coronavirus and a consultation on cosmetic intervention advertising to the under 18s, as well as ASA decisions on where the terms should be in radio ads and about an ad that was likely to offend on grounds of race; as well as CAP guidance on guarantees. We also cover children’s recognition of ads and protecting children online. See also the government’s obesity strategy, the CMA’s update about the so-called “loyalty penalty” and a consultation on loot boxes.

Finally, we have reports about Lionel Messi’s application for a trade mark (more successful than his attempts to leave Barcelona) and a less successful attempt at a trade mark application for “The Royal Butler”.