A clinic that said ozone therapy could successfully treat Covid-19 has been told the claim was misleading and in breach of advertising rules.

The Detox Clinic Ltd displayed a banner at the top of the-detox-clinic.com which said “Ozone proven to beat COVID-19!”, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.

The watchdog said a complainant challenged whether the claim was misleading and could be substantiated.

The ASA said it considered that consumers were likely to interpret the claim to mean that ozone therapy was a successful treatment for Covid-19 in people who tested positive for the virus.

It noted that the original claim had been amended to say “Spanish, Italian and Chinese doctors claim Ozone Therapy is beating Covid19 in clinical trials”, but the watchdog considered that the amended claim did not alter the overall impression likely to be given to consumers.

The ASA reviewed the link provided which displayed a web page for an ozone therapy equipment supplier.

The specific web page was titled “CASE STUDIES COVID-19” and contained a list of various news articles, a Facebook post, a letter and a guidance document.

The ASA said some of those documents were inaccessible, including a link that appeared to be a study.

The watchdog said it was not provided with access to the full document and therefore could not review it.

The linked web page also provided a further link to an online database, which displayed thousands of results in relation to ozone therapy in general.

There were only limited results specifically regarding Covid-19 and none of those results appeared to be randomised controlled trials.

The ASA ruling said: “We acknowledged that some of the papers were about the use of ozone therapy in relation to Covid-19 treatment, but they were narrative reviews rather than actual experimental trials of any kind.

“We therefore considered that we had not seen sufficient substantiation to support the claim, as consumers were likely to understand it. We concluded that the claim was misleading and breached the code.”

The watchdog also looked into a complaint about a web page titled “Colon Hydrotherapy” which displayed text which stated “People have colon hydrotherapy for a wide range of reasons. Some are looking for relief from the symptoms of IBS”.

A subheading further down the page said “BENEFITS OF COLON HYDROTHERAPY” and showed text below which said “It can be useful in helping with conditions such as: … Irritable Bowel Syndrome”.

The ASA said: “To substantiate the claim that colon hydrotherapy could treat the symptoms of IBS, we expected to see clinical trial evidence.

“However, The Detox Clinic did not provide any clinical trial or documentary evidence to support that claim.

“Because we had not seen sufficient evidence that colon hydrotherapy could help treat all symptoms of IBS, we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading and had not been substantiated.”

The ASA added: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told The Detox Clinic Ltd not to claim that ozone therapy could successfully treat Covid-19 unless unless they held sufficient evidence for this.

“We also told The Detox Clinic Ltd to ensure that they did not state or imply that colon hydrotherapy could help treat all symptoms of IBS unless they held sufficient evidence for this.”