16.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a licensee and an authorised person (if applicable) must not publish on the licensee’s website a hyperlink to any other website that —
(a)
contains information that —
(i)
is not factually accurate or capable of being substantiated; or
(ii)
is exaggerated, false, misleading or deceptive;
(b)
is either of the following:
(i)
offensive, ostentatious or in bad taste;
(ii)
undermines the honour and dignity of any healthcare profession;
(c)
contains any information that —
(i)
implies that the licensee can obtain results from any licensable healthcare service the licensee provides that are not achievable by other licensees;
(ii)
creates an unjustified expectation from the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee;
(iii)
compares and contrasts the quality of the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee with the quality of the same licensable healthcare service provided by another licensee; or
(iv)
deprecates any licensable healthcare service provided by another licensee;
(d)
contains any photograph, picture, video or film showing the appearance or a feature of an individual before and after, or only after, receiving any treatment —
(i)
whether or not the photograph, picture, video or film creates an unjustified expectation from the treatment provided; and
(ii)
whether all the photographs, pictures, videos or films relating to the same treatment are contained in one advertisement or more than one advertisement;
(e)
contains any laudatory statement (including a statement of prominence or uniqueness) or superlative to describe the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee;
(f)
except as provided in regulation 14, contains any review, testimonial or endorsement about the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee, including the services of any healthcare professional or employee of the licensee in relation to the provision of that licensable healthcare service; or
(g)
provides information in such a manner as to amount to soliciting or encouraging the use of the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee.
(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply if, at the time of setting the hyperlink to a website, the licensee or authorised person (as the case may be) does not know, and has no reason to believe, that the website is a website mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) to (g).
(3) Subject to paragraphs (4) and (5), where the licensee or authorised person (as the case may be) becomes aware that a hyperlink has been published on its website to a website mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) to (g) (called in this regulation the non‑compliant hyperlink), the licensee or authorised person (as the case may be) must immediately remove from the licensee’s website the non‑compliant hyperlink.
(4) Paragraph (3) does not apply in relation to the licensee if —
(a)
the authorised person informs the licensee of both of the following:
(i)
that the authorised person has removed the non‑compliant hyperlink from the licensee’s website;
(ii)
the steps the authorised person has taken in relation to the removal of the non‑compliant hyperlink; and
(b)
the licensee verifies that the authorised person has removed the non‑compliant hyperlink from the licensee’s website.
(5) Paragraph (3) does not apply in relation to the authorised person if the licensee informs the authorised person that the licensee or any other authorised person has removed the non‑compliant hyperlink from the licensee’s website.
