The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) requires certain online services to have in place greater levels of transparency and accountability, empower users with more choice and control, and protect users from fraudulent advertising.
These services, known as categorised services, are some of the most widely-used online services in the UK. Ofcom, as the online safety regulator, is responsible for ensuring that providers of these services comply with the additional responsibilities placed upon them. We are publishing our proposals for what Category 1 and Category 2A services should do to tackle fraudulent advertising in line with their duties under the Act. The proposals apply to paid-for advertising content, and not user generated content (UGC) or non-sponsored search content. We are also publishing our register of categorised services, and our proposals for additional duties on categorised services.
Next steps
- We want to extend our thanks to stakeholders for their engagement to date, as we have built up our policy proposals, in particular to those who responded to our Call for Evidence, formal and informal information requests, engaged with our research, and more generally those who have given up some of their valuable time to talk to us about fraudulent advertising.
- We welcome stakeholder feedback via our online response form.
- Our Overview sets out what our consultation is about, what our proposals endeavour to achieve, and the importance of taking a holistic approach, across the full range of actors, to tackle fraudulent advertising harm.
- We have published various accessible materials to help stakeholders engage with the consultation.
- We plan to publish our Statement by mid-2027 at the latest.
Responding to this consultation
Please submit responses using the response form no later than 2 October 2026.