News

ABAC has announced that it has commissioned JWS Research to undertake proactive monitoring of compliance with ABAC Responsible Alcohol Marketing Code Placement Rule 2. This requires an alcohol marketer to utilise available age restriction controls to exclude minors from viewing its marketing communications.  

JWS Research will randomly select 300 alcohol producer, distributor or retailer brands to audit to determine whether available age restriction controls have been applied to their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. If an account is identified as not having in place available age restriction controls, JWS Research will contact the brand owner to identify whether the brand account is generated by, for or within the reasonable control of an Australian alcohol marketer in relation to a product sold in Australia. 

The random audit may include independent breweries and the Independent Brewers Association are encouraging its members to utilise ABAC’s resources to undertake a self-assessment of their social media settings. The ABAC Self Assessment Checklist contains instructions on how to implement age restrictions for each of the social media platforms.

It remains unclear what impact the new Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 (the Bill) will have on age verification on social media platforms and what that means for alcohol producer accounts in the future but rest assured we will keep up with this development and provide guidance to members as it comes to hand.

In the meantime, our members are encouraged to ensure you all meet ABAC standards.