The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Montford Group Ltd trading as Britannia Bullion over a paid-for LinkedIn advertisement promoting physical gold investment.
The ruling, published on 10 June 2026, concerned an ad seen on 13 March 2026 that promoted physical gold with the text: "Stocks can crash. Banks can fail. But physical gold remains. Discover why many investors are turning to gold to protect their wealth against inflation, political risk, and currency instability."
The ASA assessed whether the advertisement was misleading because it did not make clear material information about the risks of the investments, and whether it breached the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) by failing to state that the value of investments was variable.
Montford Group Ltd t/a Britannia Bullion acknowledged that the advertisement did not state that physical gold investment was unregulated. The company also accepted that references such as "protect their wealth" and "store of value" could be interpreted as investment claims, and that the ad did not include a warning that investments could go down as well as up.
The ASA understood that the physical gold investment market was not regulated within the UK and was not covered by the protections of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. On that basis, the regulator concluded that omission of this information meant consumers were not adequately informed about the nature and risks of the product.
The Authority found that the advertisement was misleading because it did not make clear that physical gold investment was unregulated. It ruled that the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3, which relate to misleading advertising, and rule 14.4, which concerns financial products.
As a result of the ruling, the ASA stated that the advertisement must not appear again in the form complained about. The Authority instructed Montford Group Ltd t/a Britannia Bullion to ensure that future marketing communications make clear that physical gold investment is unregulated and that the value of investments is variable and can go down as well as up.
