What happens if Ahpra sends you an advertising compliance letter?
CompliGUARD reviews this compliance area against TGA · AHPRA · FSANZ · ACCC frameworks for Australian health brands — here's what the regulations say.
An Ahpra advertising compliance letter is normally a correction notice giving you around 30 days to fix the content it identifies — it is not a fine, and it is not a disciplinary finding. What determines the outcome is whether you correct the advertising within the window and can show how you did it.
The rule: Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, s.133; Ahpra Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, December 2020
Section 133 prohibits advertising a regulated health service in a way that is false or misleading, offers a gift or inducement without terms, uses testimonials, creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment, or encourages indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services. Ahpra's advertising process runs review, then risk assessment, then action. The usual first action is a correction letter. Registered practitioners who do not correct may face conditions on their registration prohibiting advertising. Non-registered and corporate advertisers who do not correct may be prosecuted, and serious breaches can be prosecuted even after correction. Most advertising matters resolve at the correction stage.
What this means in practice
- Read what the letter actually asks for. Letters typically cite examples rather than a complete audit. Fixing only the named examples, when the same breach appears across hundreds of other posts, is a partial correction — and partial correction is what escalates matters.
- Archive rather than delete. Archiving removes public access while preserving your own record. Deleting destroys the evidence of what was published and when, which you may need later.
- Work by content type, not post by post. A large archive resolves into a manageable number of repeating formats — outcome images, patient quote cards, shared reviews, stock imagery, promotional posts. Decide the treatment for each format, then apply it consistently.
- Fix the source, not just the symptom. If the website, the social bio and the booking page carry the same claim, correcting the post alone leaves the breach live.
- Document what you changed. The correction is the requirement; the record of it is what demonstrates good faith if the matter is revisited.
Common mistakes
Going quiet
Deadline extensions are commonly granted where a practitioner is visibly engaging. Silence is what moves a matter from correction to escalation.
Acknowledge the letter, state what you are doing and by when, even if the full remediation will take longer than the window.
Correcting, then resuming the same content
A repeat breach after a correction letter is treated more seriously than the original. Regulators look for a process, not a one-off cleanup.
Put a pre-publication review step in place before resuming posting, so the correction holds.
Treating it as only an advertising problem
A letter about cosmetic advertising often sits alongside obligations most clinics have not considered: prescription-only medicine references under the Therapeutic Goods Act, and the requirement at s.2.7 of the cosmetic procedures guideline to publish the treating practitioner's registration number.
Audit against every framework that applies, not only the clauses the letter names.
Compliant vs non-compliant example
❌ NON-COMPLIANT
Going quiet
✅ COMPLIANT
Acknowledge the letter, state what you are doing and by when, even if the full remediation will take longer than the window.
The enforcement context
Advertising complaints assessed by Ahpra rose from 380 in 2022/23 to 667 in 2023/24 and 775 in 2024/25 — an increase of 104% over two years. Fifty-nine complaints about the advertising of cosmetic procedures were assessed in 2024/25. Ahpra has operated a dedicated Cosmetic Surgery Enforcement Unit since September 2022. Criminal penalties under the National Law reach three years imprisonment and/or $60,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate per offence, though published case outcomes for advertising alone are rare — most matters end at correction.
Before you publish, check it.
CompliGUARD reviews health and cosmetic advertising against the Ahpra Advertising Guidelines, the higher risk cosmetic procedures guidelines, the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code 2021 and Australian Consumer Law, returning a risk assessment, the clause behind each finding and a compliant rewrite — with every review retained in an audit trail.
Start free reviewRelated questions
Regulatory references
- Health Practitioner Regulation National Law — s.133
- Ahpra Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, December 2020
- Ahpra Guidelines for advertising higher risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures, in effect 2 September 2025 — s.2.7
- Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 — s.42DL