Guide

The GMC advertising rules, and what they mean for your website

Five things the guidance actually says, and the checklist to run your own site against.

The short answer: the GMC does not ban you from marketing, it bans you from marketing in ways that mislead a patient or push them into a decision they have not thought through. Almost every problem on a private practice website comes from one of five things.

1. Can you say a procedure is risk free?

The GMC’s cosmetic interventions guidance is explicit that you must not claim interventions are risk free. In practice the breach is rarely the phrase itself. It is a page that describes the result in detail and the risk not at all, which produces the same impression.

2. Are discounts and time-limited offers allowed?

You must not use promotional tactics in ways that could encourage people to make an ill-considered decision. Time-limited offers, loyalty schemes, package deals and discount platforms are not automatically prohibited, but they are where the guidance most often bites. A countdown timer on a surgical procedure is the clearest example of the wrong side of the line.

3. Can a procedure be a competition prize?

This one is unambiguous. A competition whose prize is a cosmetic procedure is not permitted.

4. What must the profile page say about qualifications?

You must give patients honest information about your skills, experience, qualifications, professional status and current role, and you must not misrepresent them. This matters most on the profile page, which is the page most likely to be written optimistically by a marketing agency and least likely to be checked by the clinician afterwards.

5. Which financial interests have to be disclosed?

Any financial or commercial interest that could be seen to affect the way you prescribe or refer has to be disclosed. If you own a share of the facility you operate in, or receive anything for referring, the website is one of the places that ought to say so.

What is the standard every published claim has to meet?

The underlying standard is that published information must be factual and capable of being checked. That is the sentence that catches the statistic nobody can source, the success rate that came from somewhere unspecified, and the review that cannot be evidenced.

How do the CAP, MHRA, CQC and DMCC rules fit alongside the GMC?

• CAP and the ASA publish specific guidance on marketing surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures, covering claims and targeting.
• The MHRA position makes it unlawful to advertise a prescription-only medicine to the public, which is a separate and stricter rule. See our guide on injectables.
• The CQC governs whether you need to be registered at all, which depends on what you provide and where.
• The DMCC Act 2024 requires that a published review be evidenceable.

What should you check on your own site today?

• Does any page imply a procedure is without risk, by describing outcome without describing risk?
• Is there a countdown, a discount deadline, or a bundle that pushes urgency onto a clinical decision?
• Does every qualification claim on every profile match the registers?
• Is any commercial interest that affects referral disclosed?
• Can every number on the site be traced to a source and a date?
• Is any review published that you could not evidence if asked?

None of this is legal advice, and we are not your compliance adviser. Compliance rests with you as the regulated party. What this checklist is for is the conversation you have with whoever built your site.

Source: General Medical Council, questions about our cosmetic interventions guidance, read 10 September 2026.