The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has determined that use of a misleading domain name to link to an advertisement infringes advertising standards.

The Complainant, the National Health Service (NHS), alleged the ad was misleading because the URL “www.nhs-services.org.uk” implied a link with the NHS.

Although the ad included text stating “This website is not connected to or affiliated with the NHS or any government department”, the ASA concluded that the use of the term “www.nhs-services” in the URL implied the advertiser was the NHS.  Because that was not the case, the ASA found the ad was misleading.