The short answer: you can advertise honestly across any channel; you cannot mislead or pressure participants, imply NDIA endorsement, misuse the NDIS logo, claim “NDIS approved”, or claim registration you do not hold. Three rulebooks apply: the NDIS Code of Conduct, the NDIA brand and logo guidelines, and the Australian Consumer Law. The practical do and don’t lists are below.
Most providers think NDIS marketing is governed by one set of rules. It is governed by three, and they are enforced by different bodies. Knowing which is which saves you from the two most common mistakes we see: assuming the Code of Conduct is the only thing that matters, and assuming consumer law does not apply to disability services.
The first rulebook is the NDIS Code of Conduct, enforced by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. It governs how you behave toward participants, including how you advertise to them, and it requires that you act with honesty, integrity and transparency. The second is the NDIA’s brand and logo guidelines, which control how the NDIS name, acronym and logos can appear in your material. The third, the one most providers forget, is the Australian Consumer Law, enforced by the ACCC. It prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct in trade, and it applies to your advertising the same way it applies to any business in Australia.
Breaching the first risks compliance action against your registration. Breaching the second risks a cease-and-desist letter and a forced rebrand. Breaching the third can attract penalties of up to $50 million per breach, or 30 percent of turnover during the breach period, under the figures the ACCC cites. All three are avoidable with a few habits, which is what the rest of this guide is about.
Marketing as an NDIS provider is normal and expected. The rules constrain how you advertise, not whether you can. In our experience running campaigns for providers, almost everything a good business wants to say is allowed when it is true and clearly worded.
The single biggest change in NDIS marketing risk over the past two years is the ACCC’s involvement. On 13 November 2024, ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe put providers on notice over misleading advertising, and said the ACCC was actively investigating multiple providers for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law with public enforcement action expected. The trigger was a wave of “NDIS approved” and “100% NDIS funded” claims that followed the funding rule changes of 3 October 2024.
The problem is simple. The NDIS does not “approve” products. There is no approval stamp to earn, so any claim that a chair, a holiday or a meal-delivery service is “NDIS approved” is misleading by definition. The ACCC singled out exactly these examples: “all inclusive” holidays, meal delivery and recreational activities marketed as NDIS-funded when they are not covered, and instructions telling participants how to use line-item codes to cover ineligible costs. Treat any sentence that implies an official NDIS tick as a red flag, and rewrite it to describe what the support actually is.
Most “white patch” confusion reduces to one principle: the NDIA controls its brand, and its guidelines specify exactly how the registered provider mark may appear, including the protected clear space (the white area you must leave around the mark) and the backgrounds it may sit on. The safe sequence is short. Confirm you are a registered provider, because only registered providers may use any NDIS provider mark at all. Download the current logo pack from the NDIA. Follow the clear-space and colour rules exactly. Never redraw, recolour, stretch or embed the mark inside your own logo.
If that sounds like effort for little gain, it is. In practice, plain text carries the same trust with none of the risk. “Registered NDIS provider” followed by your registration number tells a participant everything the logo would, and it can never be the thing that triggers a cease-and-desist letter. We default to text for clients and only add an NDIA mark when there is a clear reason to.
Before anything goes live, ask five questions. Is every claim true and provable? Could a reasonable person think the NDIA approved or endorsed this? Does any wording imply we are registered if we are not? Did every identifiable participant consent? Would I be comfortable if a support coordinator forwarded this to the Commission? Five yeses and you are almost certainly fine. This is the same check we run on every campaign we publish for clients, and it catches the overwhelming majority of issues before a regulator ever could.
Social proof is powerful and allowed, with conditions. Reviews and testimonials must be genuine, not incentivised, and never fabricated. Any identifiable participant, in a quote, photo or video, must give informed, written consent, and you must respect their privacy and dignity in how you use it. Keep the consent on file and honour it if they later withdraw it. You also cannot offer rewards or discounts in exchange for a review, which breaches Google’s policies and the spirit of the Code of Conduct, and can itself be misleading conduct under consumer law. Done properly, real reviews and participant stories are the most persuasive and most compliant marketing you have.
The same principles apply everywhere, but each channel has its own traps.
Three doors can open, depending on which rulebook you breach. The NDIS Commission can act on misleading or inappropriate marketing under the Code of Conduct, from requiring you to fix or remove content through to compliance action against your registration in serious cases. The NDIA protects the NDIS name and logo as trademarks and can issue cease-and-desist letters and take further legal action to make misuse stop. The ACCC can pursue misleading conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, where penalties run far higher than most providers realise.
Beyond the regulators, the bigger day-to-day cost is trust. Support coordinators and families notice over-claiming, and it quietly costs you the referrals you were chasing in the first place. Treat compliance as part of good marketing rather than a constraint on it, and you avoid both problems at once. If you are unsure about a specific claim, check the current guidance from the NDIS Commission or get advice before you publish.
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Yes. Advertising is allowed and normal. It must be honest, must not pressure participants or compromise their choice and control, and must follow the NDIS Code of Conduct, the NDIA’s rules on the NDIS name and logo, and the Australian Consumer Law’s ban on misleading or deceptive conduct.
Generally no. The NDIS logo and acronym are registered trademarks of the NDIA, and no business may use the logo without written NDIA consent. Only registered providers may use the “I/we heart NDIS” or “we support NDIS” logos, and only with the “Registered Provider” tagline. Plain text stating your registration communicates the same thing with no risk.
It refers to the NDIA’s rules around the registered provider mark, particularly the protected clear space (the white area you must leave around the logo) and the background requirements. The current logo guidelines on ndis.gov.au are the authoritative source, and only registered providers may use the mark at all.
They can describe the truth: that they support plan-managed and self-managed NDIS participants. They cannot claim to be registered, use the registered provider logos, or imply NDIA endorsement. The Code of Conduct prohibits falsely inferring registration through words or logos, and this applies even while a registration application is being assessed.
No. The NDIA does not approve goods or services, so “NDIS approved” and “100% NDIS funded” are misleading by definition. In November 2024 the ACCC publicly named these exact claims and said it was investigating multiple providers under the Australian Consumer Law. Describe what the support actually is instead.
It depends on which rulebook you breach. The NDIS Commission can require you to fix or remove content or take compliance action against your registration. The NDIA can issue cease-and-desist letters over logo and name misuse. The ACCC can pursue misleading conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, where penalties reach up to $50 million per breach or 30 percent of turnover during the breach period.
Further reading: NDIS Code of Conduct · NDIA logo guidelines · Our branding service
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