Rules and ethics
Part of Check promotional merchandise rules and ethics before you order
Promotional merchandise disclosure policy: what it covers
What a promotional merchandise disclosure policy should include, from gift records and approvals to labelling and supplier safety evidence.
What to take away
- Disclosure rules tightened: a gifted post can count as an ad without payment when the brand has editorial control, so the policy question is about control.
- A written policy names who approves a gift, the label to use, what goes in the register and how long records are kept.
- In Great Britain, product-safety duties include the General Product Safety Regulations 2005; Northern Ireland has a different applicable regime.
- The wording needs a qualified adviser, because individual campaigns turn on their own facts.
Why does a promotional merchandise disclosure policy matter?
Disclosure expectations have tightened. A gifted post can count as advertising even without payment where the brand has editorial control over the content. That shifts the test from payment alone to control.
In Great Britain, the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 apply to consumer products where more specific product rules do not govern the safety issue. The Office for Product Safety and Standards is the national product-safety regulator, while local authority Trading Standards services carry out much market surveillance and enforcement.
The CAP Code applies across the UK, but product-safety rules and enforcement differ in Northern Ireland. The EU General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 applies there, and the Trading Standards Service in Northern Ireland is the relevant product-safety enforcement authority.
Our promotional merchandise UK rules and compliance guide covers labelling and contracts, and is worth reading before you draft anything.
Which gifts must be labelled as advertising?
Start with control. Under CAP Code rule 2.1, marketing communications must be obviously identifiable; rule 2.4 requires advertorials to be clearly identified as marketing communications. Set the default label as “Ad” or “#ad”, placed prominently at the start of the content. “Gifted” alone may not make the commercial relationship clear.
Unsolicited gifts are harder. A low-value item sent with no conditions is usually not advertising, but the line moves when the creator posts about it anyway. Record the decision either way.
Staff gifts need their own rule. A branded jacket for a warehouse team is not advertising, but a sample sent to a journalist under embargo is a press item.
Treat agency placements as your own. If a PR agency sends branded gifts on your behalf, the disclosure duty stays with the brand rather than the intermediary. Keep the placement brief on file.
For borderline cases, the Copy Advice service from the Advertising Standards Authority lets advertisers check compliance before a campaign runs. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance on social media endorsements is also relevant to creator disclosures. Use these for campaigns with a creator element.
What should the policy actually contain?
Keep it to one page plus a log. The table shows the shift most teams make.
Informal vs Written Policy
Before: informal practice
- Labelling
- Decided per post
- Approval
- Marketing assistant signs off
- Records
- Emails and spreadsheets
- Safety
- Assumed supplier checks
- Review
- None
After: written policy
- Labelling
- Required label by gift type
- Approval
- Named owner above threshold
- Records
- Single gift register
- Safety
- Supplier declaration on file
- Review
- Reviewed each quarter
Before: informal practice
- Labelling
- Decided per post by the creator
- Approval
- Marketing assistant signs off
- Records
- Emails and spreadsheets
- Safety
- Assumed supplier checks
- Review
- None
After: written policy
- Labelling
- Required label defined by gift type
- Approval
- Named owner signs off above a value threshold
- Records
- Single gift register with dates
- Safety
- Supplier declaration held on file
- Review
- Reviewed each quarter
Make the policy operational by setting out these clauses:
- Scope and trigger:say which gifts and creator activity are covered, and that the marketing owner assesses whether the brand has control over the content.
- Approval and label:name the person who approves each placement and require the approved label, such as “Ad” or “#ad”, to appear prominently before publication.
- Recipient instructions:tell recipients in writing what disclosure is required and who to contact if they need to amend a post.
- Records:require an entry for each gift or placement, including the recipient, item, value, date, campaign, decision on labelling, approver and evidence of the published disclosure.
- Safety evidence:require the relevant supplier declaration and supporting product-safety documents to be filed with the order.
- Retention and review:state how long the register and supporting records are kept, who reviews that period, and when records are deleted or anonymised. There is no single retention period for every gift register; where it contains personal data, apply the UK GDPR storage-limitation principle and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The register matters more than the prose. Capture the recipient, the item, its value, the date, the campaign, who approved it, whether a label was required and evidence that the disclosure appeared.
Name an owner. One person should maintain the register, answer supplier questions and run the quarterly review, because shared ownership tends to lapse.
Safety evidence belongs beside it. Ask suppliers for a declaration identifying the goods and the applicable safety requirements, and keep supporting test or conformity documents with the order paperwork. Where relevant to the product category, check for the required UKCA or CE marking and applicable standards such as EN 71 for toys; there is no single supplier declaration form for every product.
Where you buy through a distributor, the commercial terms decide who carries that duty. The promotional merchandise commercial contracts page explains how to place those obligations in the agreement.
How do you apply the policy day to day?
Give one person the approval role. A single named owner stops three people each assuming someone else checked the label.
Gift Approval Threshold
Is the gift value above the threshold?
Legal or finance signs off
Marketing lead approves
Set a value threshold. Below it, the marketing lead approves; above it, legal or finance signs. For example, a team paying £400 a month for creator gifts might set the threshold at £150 per item, as an illustrative figure.
Brief recipients in writing. Tell them a label is required and that the brand may ask for the post to be amended.
Store the register and the safety declarations together, so a question about one item can be answered in minutes rather than by searching old emails.
Review quarterly. Platforms and product categories change, and an unreviewed policy stops matching practice.
For environmental claims on branded goods, the sustainable marketing hub from the Chartered Institute of Marketing covers wording that avoids vague green claims.
Common questions
Does a free gift always need an ad label?
No. An unconditional low-value gift with no editorial control usually falls outside advertising rules. A label is needed when the brand controls the content.
Who is responsible if a branded product is unsafe?
Suppliers and distributors both carry duties, and consumer product rules are enforced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Keep supplier declarations on file.
Can a small team use a one-page policy?
Yes. One page plus a gift register covers most needs. Expand it only when you run creator programmes at scale.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is general guidance based on current UK regulator material. Individual campaigns and contracts need a qualified adviser.
