The Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021

Restriction on the promotion of specified food – online E+W

8.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), a qualifying person must not cause specified food to be offered for sale on an online marketplace—

(a) on a home page (whether or not the consumer enters the online marketplace via the home page);

(b) while a consumer is searching for or browsing products other than Schedule 1 food, unless paragraph (4) or (5) applies;

(c) while a consumer is searching for or browsing Schedule 1 food, unless—

(i) the specified food falls within the same Schedule 1 category, or

(ii) paragraph (4) or (5) applies;

(d) on a page not opened intentionally by the consumer (such as a “pop-up” page or a “brand burst”);

(e) on a favourite products page, unless the consumer has previously purchased the specified food (whether in store or online) or intentionally identified it as a favourite product but specified food must not in any event be given greater prominence than other products on a favourite products page;

(f) on a checkout page.

(2) Paragraph (1) does not prohibit offering specified food for sale on a page opened intentionally by a consumer for the purpose of browsing special offers generally.

(3) This regulation does not apply in respect of a qualifying business which only or mainly sells food from a single category listed in Schedule 1.

(4) This paragraph applies where—

(a) a consumer is searching for or browsing food (whether or not specified food), and

(b) the qualifying person causes specified food to be offered for sale together with the food referred to in sub-paragraph (a) as part of a relevant special offer.

(5) This paragraph applies—

(a) where a consumer browses or searches for a general category of product which includes the specified food (such as categories relating to seasonality, or to nutritional or dietary characteristics);

(b) in relation to searching, where a search term entered by the consumer matches in whole or in part—

(i) the name under which the specified food is marketed, or

(ii) an ingredient listed on the packaging of the specified food.

(6) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) “checkout page” means a page shown to a consumer as part of the checkout process, such as a page listing items the consumer has so far selected for purchase or a page dealing with payment, collection or delivery;

(b) “favourite products page” means a page opened by a consumer for the purpose of browsing products they have previously purchased or intentionally identified as favourite products;

(c) “home page” means any of—

(i) an online marketplace’s highest level public page;

(ii) the highest level public page of an online marketplace’s grocery section.

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 8 in force at 1.10.2022, see reg. 1(1)