ASA Adjudication on British Gas Trading Ltd

Ad

A radio ad, for Scottish Gas, stated "There are a number of emotional stages people go through after discovering Scottish Gas is actually cheaper than ScottishPower for dual fuel. First, there's denial: ' ... I can't hear you.' Then anger: 'You mean I could have been saving money with Scottish Gas?' And finally, acceptance: 'Hello, I'd like Scottish Gas to be my supplier please.' Scottish Gas really is cheaper than ScottishPower for dual fuel. Compares our and ScottishPower standard variable quarterly cash cheque prices based on industry average annual gas and electricity consumption in the ScottishPower electricity supply region."

Issue

ScottishPower Energy Retail Ltd (ScottishPower), who believed they were cheaper for dual fuel when their prompt payment discount was taken into account, challenged the claim "Scottish Gas is actually cheaper than ScottishPower for dual fuel".

BCAP Radio Code

Response

Scottish Gas said prompt payment was not a standard pay type.  They argued that ScottishPower customers did not automatically receive a discount; they had to pay early in order to receive that benefit.  They believed it was inappropriate to include the prompt payment discount in the price comparison, because it could not be assumed that customers would pay early.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) said they cleared the ad based on information from Scottish Gass agency that Scottish Gass annual dual fuel bill was £47.08 cheaper than ScottishPowers and based on the inclusion of the qualification "Compares our and ScottishPower standard variable quarterly cash cheque prices based on industry average annual gas and electricity consumption in the ScottishPower electricity supply region."  They explained that they had been unaware of any potential discount available to ScottishPowers customers when they cleared the ad.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that Scottish Gas had compared their standard quarterly cash or cheque payment product with the equivalent product from ScottishPower. However, we considered the ScottishPower product provided an intrinsic benefit - the prompt payment discount - which the Scottish Gas product did not offer. ScottishPower customers did not have to choose, or switch to, a separate prompt payment tariff to receive the discount; it automatically applied to every customer who paid their bill within 14 days of its issue each quarter. We considered that ScottishPower customers merely had to pay promptly, rather than early, to receive the discount; such behaviour was neither onerous nor unrealistic.

ScottishPower provided us with confidential information on the proportion of their customers who received the prompt payment discount.  We considered that the proportion was significant.

We considered the ad suggested that Scottish Gas were always cheaper than ScottishPower for dual fuel. Because that was not the case for a significant proportion of customers, we concluded that the claim "Scottish Gas is actually cheaper than ScottishPower for dual fuel" was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2 rule 3 (Misleadingness) and section 2 rule 6 (Fair comparisons).

Action

We told Scottish Gas to make clear in future comparative ads that they had excluded their competitors prompt payment discounts from the comparison, if that was so.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)