The UK's Committee of Advertising Practice has issued an enforcement notice covering marketing to UK consumers of physical gold and other physical precious metals as investments. The 29 October notice names silver, platinum and palladium as well as gold. CAP says active monitoring will begin on 26 November 2026, with targeted enforcement action where necessary. That is a future monitoring milestone, not a claim that named advertisers have already been sanctioned under this notice.[1][2]
The instructions emphasise that the sector described in the notice is unregulated and advertisements should make that clear. Marketers must also warn prominently that investment values can fall as well as rise and that past performance does not necessarily indicate future results. These requirements matter in a market where physical asset ownership is sometimes promoted using language borrowed from regulated savings or brokerage products.[1]
Scope: physical bullion is not a leveraged CFD
The notice applies to advertising physical precious metals as investments. It should not be broadened into a statement that every regulated commodity future, listed gold fund or gold CFD is unregulated. Each product has its own legal characteristics, provider, permissions and risks. A broker or referral partner offering several categories of gold exposure must avoid using the label 'gold investing' to collapse these distinctions.[1]
Gold bars and coins also involve storage, custody, dealer spreads and potential resale restrictions. Those commercial realities are separate from the advertising warnings, which address how risk and regulatory status are presented to an ordinary consumer. An advertisement can be misleading through omission even when the physical asset and its market price are genuine.[1][2]
The three warnings and the next date
| Disclosure | CAP position |
|---|---|
| Regulatory position | Explain that the covered physical-investment sector is unregulated |
| Value risk | May fall as well as rise unless guaranteed |
| Historical performance | Not necessarily indicative of future performance |
| Monitoring starts | 26 November 2026 |
Practical implications for advertising partners
Affiliates and lead-generation websites promoting precious-metals investments should check whether the notice applies to their own marketing, rather than assuming that disclaimers on a seller's landing page resolve every problem. Prominent presentation matters: warnings hidden in tiny footnotes or placed where customers will rarely see them may not satisfy the notice's requirement for clear risk communication.[1]
CAP's publication does not create a blanket prohibition on advertising gold or establish a new financial-services licence category. It specifies the information that advertisements for the covered physical investments should clearly communicate. The actionable next date is 26 November, when CAP says active monitoring is due to begin.[1][2]
Sources & further reading
- Enforcement Notice: Physical Gold and Other Precious Metals Investments Committee of Advertising Practice / ASA · 29 Oct 2026 · Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- CAP issues Enforcement Notice on ads for physical gold and precious metals investments Committee of Advertising Practice · 29 Oct 2026 · Accessed 30 Oct 2026