ASA Adjudication on Kenwood Travel Ltd

Ad

A national press ad, for a prize draw, stated "WIN 2 RETURN FLIGHTS Win a pair of tickets to Barbados or St Lucia in a FREE PRIZE DRAW, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic & Kenwood Travel. No purchase necessary - see link below for details". A website address was given.

Issue

1. The complainant, who won the prize draw, challenged whether the ad was misleading, because it had not made clear that the winner would have to pay taxes and charges, which amounted to £280, in order to be able to take advantage of the prize.

2. The ASA challenged the ad's failure to include a closing date for the prize draw.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Kenwood Travel Ltd (Kenwood) said space limitations prevented them from including the terms and conditions of the promotion in the ad. They pointed out however that entrants were directed to their website where full details of the competition were set out. Kenwood sent the ASA a copy of the relevant section of the terms and conditions which stated at point six "Airport Tax and Security Charge is to be paid by the winner." They explained that those conditions applied to all their Virgin promotions because taxes and security charges were paid by the airline directly to the authorities and Virgin were unable to discount them.

2. Kenwood said they were not aware that it was a requirement of the CAP Code to include a closing date for promotions and apologised for the omission. They said the closing date of the promotion was two weeks after publication of the ad.  

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA understood that Kenwood had not included the terms and conditions of the promotion in the ad because of space limitations and noted the ad included a website address where further details could be found.  We further noted the terms and conditions were accessible via a link on the online entry form filled out by participants.  Participants had to check the "Terms and Conditions" box to show they had read them before submitting their entry.  

We noted CAP Code clause 34.1e stated that promotions needed to make clear the nature of any prizes and considered that, by failing to indicate in the ad that the winner would be liable to pay taxes and charges, Kenwood had not made clear the nature of the prize.  While we acknowledged that the requirement to pay taxes and charges was set out in the terms and conditions, we concluded that it was a significant condition likely to influence a consumer's decision about whether to participate in the promotion and, as such, should have been made clear in the ad.  We considered that the ad's failure to include that information was likely to have caused unnecessary disappointment to participants, who would only have discovered the onerous condition when they went online.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Unnecessary disappointment) and 34.1e (Significant conditions for promotions).  

2. Upheld

We noted Kenwood's comments and understood that the closing date of the promotion was two weeks after the publication of the ad.  We considered that the closing date was therefore a significant condition that should have been made clear in the ad.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 34.1c (Significant conditions for promotions).

Action

We told Kenwood to ensure that ads for future, similar promotions made clear any significant conditions, including the closing date and any costs for which the winner would be liable.  We advised them to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)