ASA Adjudication on Cotton Traders Ltd

Ad

A direct mailing for a catalogue's bonus reward scheme stated "Every customer who has ordered from Cotton Traders in the last three years has been awarded a number of Reward Points. The number of reward points you have accumulated will dictate the FREE Gift you will receive. *You have earned maximum Reward Points! When you spend £30 or more you can claim our most valuable ... fabulous 3-in-1 Digital Camera - absolutely FREE". The accompanying Gift Allocation voucher stated "3-in-1 Digital Camera - Normally R.R.P £79.95".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the Recommended Retail Price quoted for the camera was genuine.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Cotton Traders Ltd (Cotton Traders) said the promotion had been prepared over six months ago and that the Recommended Retail Price (R.R.P.) had been valid at that point, but they did not provide information that confirmed that. They acknowledged that the R.R.P. was no longer valid and was therefore misleading, and said that it would no longer appear in the promotion.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA welcomed Cotton Trader's assurance that the R.R.P. of the digital camera would no longer appear in the promotion. However, we considered that Cotton Traders had not provided substantiation that the camera had been sold at the price of £79.95, or that it was worth that amount. Because we had not seen evidence that the R.R.P. was a genuine price for the digital camera, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 15.5 (Prices).

Action

We told Cotton Traders to make sure that Recommended Retail Prices quoted in future ads were genuine, and that they had evidence to substantiate the R.R.P.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)