ASA Adjudication on DSG Retail Ltd

Ad

A national press ad for PC World offered a selection of ink cartridges. Text stated "The UK's largest range of inks to take home today! Choose from over 250 inks from all the top brands. That’s loads more than your local Tesco! …".

Issue

Staples UK Retail Ltd (Staples) challenged whether the claim "The UK's largest range of inks to take home today!" was misleading and could be substantiated, because they believed they carried a larger range of inks than PC World.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

DSG Retail Ltd (DSG) explained that the claim was based on an ink product line comparison undertaken by a third party on 17 April 2008.  It involved visiting 26 randomly selected ink retailers nationwide and counting the product lines available for immediate purchase.  They explained that PC World stores stocked an average of 315 individual ink products for immediate purchase, whereas the Staples store in Bradford, identified by the third party as the largest Staples store, stocked 274 individual ink products for immediate purchase.  They added that other ink line product checks were conducted at Staples stores in Gateshead, Dundee and Hanley, which confirmed that the Bradford store held the most stock.  They said Staples was identified as the competitor with the second largest range of ink at the time the comparison was carried out.

DSG submitted details of the retailers and locations of stores visited, the number of ink product lines stocked by every PC World store, a comparison of products stocked in PC World, Staples Corner and Staples, Bradford and a list of ink product lines stocked by Staples, Bradford.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that Staples challenged the claim "The UK's largest range of inks to take home today!" because their records showed that, in general, Staples carried a greater range of ink products than PC World.  We understood, however, that the claim was based on a third party comparison of ink products available for purchase in selected stores throughout the UK. PC World was identified in the survey as the retailer that held the most stock available to take home on that specific date when the average number of ink products across all PC World stores was calculated.

We noted the survey was conducted across 26 stores and incorporated branches of PC World and Staples, two large supermarket chains and two high street retailers.  Although DSG believed the survey had identified the largest Staples store in the comparison and found them to be the second largest retailer in terms of the number of ink products available, we considered that it was not possible to deduce from the evidence that the stores with the greatest number of products in stock had been included in the comparison and, therefore, that PC World had definitively shown that they carried the largest range of inks in the UK.  We also noted, of the 26 stores featured in the survey, only one was in Wales and none were in Northern Ireland.  We considered, therefore, that the number and location of stores surveyed was insufficient to substantiate the claim "The UK's largest range of inks to take home today!".

In addition, we considered that readers were likely to infer from the claim that PC World carried a greater range of ink products in all branches when compared to all of their competitors' stores.  We noted from the evidence, however, that some PC World stores carried fewer than the number of ranges held by the selected Staples branches on the same day.  

We concluded that the claim "The UK's largest range of inks to take home today!" had not been substantiated and could mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.  We advised DSG to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance with future ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)