CompliGUARD vs AdCheck vs ClearAds vs regulatory consultants: health advertising compliance compared, Australia 2026

Since pre-approval of therapeutic goods advertising ended on 1 July 2020, advertisers have been responsible for making sure their own ads comply with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. The TGA reported removing over 13,700 unlawful advertisements in 2024–25. Under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, civil penalties can reach $15.65 million for a corporation and $1.565 million for an individual.

Most health marketing is no longer one TV ad a quarter. It's weekly EDMs, daily social posts, blog content and Shopify product pages. The question is no longer only "is this ad compliant". It's "how do we check everything we publish, at the speed we publish it, without the cost growing with every post". That's the test this comparison applies.

AdCheck is an advisory service established by CHP Australia, the national industry association for consumer healthcare products. Human reviewers assess each ad against the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. A compliant ad receives a Certificate of Conformance and an AdCheck number.

Its fee schedule (effective 1 July 2026, +GST) prices static social posts, banners and EDMs as print: from $210 for a single product with a pack shot and up to 10 words, up to $910 for more than 20 products or 500 words. Video under 90 seconds costs $720. Websites are $220 per product plus $220 per page, with a $600 minimum. A revision that affects compliance costs 50% of the original fee, and a mandatory or minor change costs 25%. Standard response is under 2 business days, and a 4-hour expedited review costs twice the fee. CHP Australia members receive 15% off.

The difference: AdCheck reviews against one framework, one ad at a time, during business hours. CompliGUARD reviews against four frameworks (TGA · AHPRA · FSANZ · ACCC) in minutes, at any hour, with re-checks included. That matters for products near the food-medicine boundary and for practitioner content, which AdCheck's TGA Code scope doesn't cover. It also matters for listed medicine brands that must include mandatory statements on all advertising — CompliGUARD checks these against each product's ARTG listing automatically.

ClearAds is the review and classification service of Free TV Australia, best known for clearing television commercials before they air. Its Therapeutic Goods Review (TGR) service covers TV, radio, digital, cinema, print, outdoor and social media.

Published TGR fees (effective October 2025, incl. GST) start at $275 for social media copy, $446.60 for social video and copy, and $618.20 for digital, cinema, print or outdoor. A new national TV commercial up to 60 seconds costs $789.80. Standard turnaround is 48 hours, and 24-hour priority costs twice the price. If you withdraw an application after review has started, a 50% closing fee applies.

The difference: ClearAds is built around broadcast clearance. CompliGUARD is built around the content health brands publish every day: product pages, EDMs, social posts and blog content. That content is reviewed in minutes against four frameworks for a flat monthly price, not per item. For supplement and VDS brands publishing regularly, see how CompliGUARD handles supplement advertising compliance.

Note: ClearAds (Free TV Australia) is unrelated to ClearAd.ai, a separate AI compliance tool reviewed in section 5 below.

Regulatory affairs consultancies support complementary medicine, food and cosmetics businesses with ARTG listings, formulation, labelling and training. Many also review advertising copy, usually quoted per job or billed hourly. Turnaround depends on the consultant's workload and commonly runs to several days. Indicatively, per-review consulting is around $650 with a 3 to 5 day turnaround, though rates vary widely between firms.

The difference: a consultancy gives tailored judgement, at a price and turnaround that suits occasional, high-stakes questions. CompliGUARD gives a consistent, clause-cited review of every piece of content, in minutes, and keeps a record of each review. When a finding needs human sign-off, CompliGUARD offers escalation to regulatory professionals, so you're not choosing between speed and expertise. For an overview of when to review content before publishing versus auditing after, see pre-publish compliance checks vs post-publish audits.

Can I use ChatGPT or Claude to check TGA compliance? Many Australian brands do, often with custom prompts or in-house skills. General AI is fast and writes well.

The difference is governance. A general model has no fixed version of the Code it checks against, and results can change when the model is updated. It doesn't know your product's ARTG indications unless you paste them in every time. It keeps no review record unless you build one. CompliGUARD runs on a version-controlled regulatory knowledge base, with a locked regression test set run before content outputs are updated when the model changes, checks claims against each product's ARTG indications through product profiles, and stores every review in the Audit Vault. You write with AI. CompliGUARD governs it.

As published on each provider's website in October 2026:

Questions to ask any provider:

1. Which frameworks does it check, by name and clause?
2. Does it check content before it goes live, or scan what's already published?
3. Does it check claims against my product's actual ARTG indications?
4. Is the rule base version-controlled, and is the model tested whenever it changes?
5. What record do I keep of each review?
6. Can I escalate a finding to a human regulatory professional?

Take a supplement brand publishing 10 static social posts and 2 EDMs a month, with no revisions:

CompliGUARD is compliance infrastructure for Australian health marketing. Before content is published, CompliGUARD reviews it against the TGA Advertising Code, AHPRA advertising guidelines, FSANZ Standard 1.2.7 and the ACCC's Australian Consumer Law guidance. For listed medicines, product profiles check each claim against the product's ARTG indications. Every review returns a low, medium or high risk assessment, findings cited to specific clauses, and compliant rewrites, in minutes. Each review is stored in the Audit Vault as evidence of due diligence, and findings can be escalated to human regulatory professionals when sign-off is needed.

CompliGUARD provides compliance and creative marketing insights based on TGA, FSANZ, ACCC and AHPRA guidance as current at the time of review. The Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code is currently under formal review by the TGA (2025–26). CompliGUARD assessments reflect the current Code; guidance may be subject to change. This output does not constitute legal advice.