ASA Adjudication on One.com LDA

Ad

A Google sponsored link for One.com was headed “Free Hosting and Domain”. Further text stated “… 1000MB Web space and .com or .co.uk domain free for 1 year. Intro offer”.

Issue

Advantage Interactive Ltd believed the use of "free" was misleading, because they understood that an obligatory set-up fee of £9 was payable in order to take advantage of the service.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

One.com explained that the claim "Free Hosting and Domain" referred to an introductory offer whereby hosting and domain were offered free when a web space package from One.com was taken.  They explained that a set up fee of £9 applied, but this cost referred to payment towards the administrative costs involved in the web page set-up and domain registration process.  They said the free offer lasted for 12 months and afterwards the hosting service would incur a minimum monthly charge of 90 pence and, at the time the ad appeared, domain prices for web addresses in the UK incurred a minimum annual fee of £6 in subsequent years.

One.com said they would amend the ad to clarify that set-up fees applied.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that the claim "Free Hosting and Domain ... 1000MB Web space and ... domain free for 1 year" referred to an offer which gave new customers of One.com's 1,000MB web hosting and domain name package, having paid a one-off fee of £9 to cover set-up and registration, web hosting for 12 months without further costs.      

We noted the claim referred to two elements within the package; monthly web hosting and domain name provision; the domain name service being only available to customers who purchased web hosting at the same time.  We understood that all customers, regardless of the offer in the ad, having paid £9 to cover the set up of the package and registration of their domain name, incurred no further costs in relation to domain name provision for a further 12 months, because that aspect of the service was subject only to an annual fee.  After 12 months' domain name provision, an annual fee applied for each subsequent year the service remained active.  We considered, therefore, that it was inaccurate to refer to this aspect of the service as "free for 1 year", because it was inextricably linked to the set up and registration fee of £9.    

With regard to the web hosting service, we understood that, at the time the ad appeared, One.com offered three hosting packages of differing sizes; 1,000MB, 2,000MB and 4,000MB.  Having selected a service and paid £9 for its set up, customers paid an additional monthly hosting subscription fee to One.com, which varied depending on the size of the package chosen.  The promotion in the sponsored link offered monthly subscription-free hosting to new subscribers of the 1,000MB hosting package for the first 12 months.

We considered that readers were likely to infer from the claim "Free Hosting and Domain ... for 1 year" that both hosting and domain were offered for 12 months without charge, which we understood was not the case; a £9 set-up fee applied in all cases.  In addition, domain name provision was inextricably linked to the set-up fee; we concluded, therefore, that use of "free" in that respect was likely to mislead.  

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales promotion rules) and 34.1a (Sales promotion rules - significant conditions for promotions).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.  We told One.com to remove the claim "Free Hosting and Domain" from their marketing and advised them to seek guidance from the CAP Copy Advice team before advertising again.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)