The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has welcomed two rulings by the UK\u2019s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against jewellery retailers accused of misleading consumers by failing to clearly identify lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) in advertisements.
\nThe ASA upheld complaints against UK-based Novita Diamonds and Hong Kong-based Linjer Ltd, ruling that their adverts breached the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing. The regulator directed both companies not to repeat the advertisements in their existing form and instructed them to clearly qualify synthetic diamonds with terms such as \u201csynthetic\u201d or \u201claboratory-created\u201d.
\nAccording to the NDC, the rulings reinforce the need for transparency in how synthetic diamonds are marketed to consumers. Amber Pepper, CEO of the Natural Diamond Council, said the decisions marked \u201ca victory for consumers\u201d and stressed that buyers should be able to make informed purchasing decisions with confidence.
\nThe complaint against Novita Diamonds related to Meta advertisements promoting \u201cready-to-ship engagement rings\u201d and \u201cpremium diamonds\u201d without clarifying that the products were laboratory-grown. Meanwhile, Linjer\u2019s Google advertisements used the phrase \u201cDiscover our brilliant diamonds\u201d without adequate disclosure.
\nThe ASA referenced the National Association of Jewellers\u2019 Diamond Terminology Guideline, which specifies that authorised qualifiers such as \u201csynthetic\u201d, \u201claboratory-grown\u201d or \u201claboratory-created\u201d must accompany references to synthetic diamonds. The guideline also discourages terms including \u201ccultured\u201d, \u201creal\u201d, \u201cgenuine\u201d, and \u201cnatural\u201d for laboratory-grown products.
\nThe regulator further clarified that disclosure must appear directly within advertisements and not solely on linked websites. It also noted that even if the word \u201cdiamond\u201d appears only in a brand name, a clear qualifier is still required where synthetic products are involved.
\nThe latest rulings add to a series of successful challenges by the NDC against synthetic diamond advertising practices in recent years, including complaints involving Skydiamond, Lark & Berry and Stephen Webster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has welcomed two rulings by the UK\u2019s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against jewellery retailers accused of misleading consumers by failing to clearly identify lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) in advertisements. The ASA upheld complaints against UK-based Novita Diamonds and Hong Kong-based Linjer Ltd, ruling that their adverts breached the UK Code of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-36363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulletin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n