ASA ruling on phone application

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that Novabeyond Ltd has breached the CAP Code by making medical claims for an app and misleadingly implying that the app could monitor blood pressure.

Two ads for the Blood Pressure-Monitor Tracker app were challenged; one featured an app library styled image with an icon of a pink heart with a white zig-zag line through it. Text above the icon text stated, “Record your heart rate daily Tap your finger FREE APP” next to an image of a digital fingerprint and a smaller version of the heart with the zigzag. The second was a paid-for Google ad featuring a video demonstration of someone pressing their finger against a digitised white monitor device, with the words “BLOOD PRESSURE” written across the top and a light-blue screen. The device contained three labels on the right-hand side titled “SYS mmHg”, “DIA mmHg” and “PUL” and adjacent numbers on the screen changed as the finger was placed onto it, until they settled on a final number.

Novabeyond t/a Blood Pressure-Monitor Tracker app stated that the app was a wellness and personal health app and measured heart rate using smartphone technology. It was not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or monitor medical conditions. The ads were created by a third-party marketing company, but they recognised that the ads may have implied the app directly measured blood pressure. The app was not registered with the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency).

ASA upheld the complaint on the basis that consumers would understand from the claim “Record your heart rate daily Tap your finger FREE APP”, and the image of a fingerprint in ad (a), and the heart icon and PUL label, which would be likely to be understood to mean pulse rate or heart rate in the digital monitor shown in ad (b), the app could record heart rate. As the app was not registered with the MHRA, medical claims could not be made for it.