Over the last few years, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has made its stance on greenwashing clear. And now it is increasing its efforts with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Three recent rulings highlight just how central AI has become to the regulator’s efforts to police environmental claims in online advertising.
In these rulings, the ASA challenged paid automated Google ads from three major retail brands: Nike, Superdry and Lacoste, identified with the use of AI. Each advert used the word “sustainable”, a term that carries significant weight with consumers and, increasingly, regulatory scrutiny. While the specifics of each case differed slightly, in all three cases the ASA concluded that sustainability claims without a high level of substantiation were likely to mislead consumers. Accordingly, all three adverts were found to be in breach of the CAP Code.
Accordingly, all three adverts were found to be in breach of the CAP Code.
These rulings are part of a much broader shift. The ASA has committed to a five year AI strategy built around a “whole system” approach to tackling advertising breaches. Since 2021, it has invested heavily in AI tools and assembled a dedicated team to embed these technologies into the regulation of online advertising.
1. By 2023, this work culminated in the launch of the Active Ad Monitoring system, a three‑pillar framework designed to identify non‑compliant ads at scale. The system operates through:
2. Ad capture at scale; the system captures ads from social media, search and display using a mix of public sources, ASA’s own internal monitoring tools and proprietary datasets.
3. AI-based filtering; machine learning models are configured to spot the ads that are most likely to be relevant to a given issue, or to have specific compliance problems.
Expert review; ASA experts then review the flagged content through a dedicated interface, allowing them to quickly assess potential breaches and take action.
According to an ASA briefing note issued in September 2025, the system scanned 28 million adverts in 2024 alone, with a target of 50 million in 2025; the ASA plans to increase this number yearly.
This level of monitoring marks a significant evolution in advertising regulation. Rather than relying solely on complaints, the ASA can proactively identify issues and address these with relative speed.
The ASA has emphasised the importance of its rulings as setting precedents for businesses, particularly in relation to climate change and environment. While monthly monitoring sweeps using AI suggests a high level of compliance in this space, the ASA continues to identify and act on a small number of potential breaches. The takeaway for companies is simple: environmental messaging is under sharper scrutiny than ever, and AI appears to give regulators the unprecedented ability to police this at scale.
This article has been written by Maria Cronin, Partner and Cara Haslam, Legal Researcher.
