ASA Adjudication on Inter-Markets Ltd
Inter-Markets Ltd t/a
gov-certificates.co.uk
37b New Cavendish Street
London
W1G 8JR
Date:
11 June 2008
Media:
Internet (sponsored search)
Sector:
Business
Number of complaints:
1
Complaint Ref:
52402
Ad
A sponsored link on Google was headlined "Birth Certificates UK". Further text stated "www.gov-certificates.co.uk Official Birth Certificates from the UK. Order online!"
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the domain name "www.gov-certificates.co.uk" misleadingly implied the advertisers were an official government agency.
CAP Code (Edition 11)
Response
Inter-Markets Ltd (Inter-Markets) said 700 people visited their site every day and they received over 200 orders per day. They said they had spoken with Westminster Trading Standards and they had not raised the domain name "www.gov-certificates.co.uk" as an issue.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted Inter-Markets comments. However, we considered that the use of the word "gov" in the domain name "www.gov-certificates.co.uk" implied the advertiser was an official government agency. Because they were not, we concluded the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).
Action
We told Inter-Markets not to repeat the ad.
Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)
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