ASA Adjudication on EasyRoommate

Ad

Six sponsored search results listed different cities and the numbers of rooms or flatshares available. One general ad stated "Rooms and FlatShare ads … More than 190,000 new ads in the UK Post Rooms & Find FlatShares - Free". Five city-specific ads stated “London Flatshare & Rooms … 35000 London Flatshare ads”, “15000 Rooms to rent in Manchester”, “Glasgow … 6800 House Share & Rooms to rent”, “6800 Flatshares & Rooms in Leeds” and “2700 Rooms to rent in Sheffield”. Three internet classified ads on other accommodation websites claimed that EasyRoommate were the "No 1 Flatshare" site. An internet display ad stated "EasyRoommate.com … UK's No.1 Flat Share Website … 190,000 … Click Here".

Issue

Flatshare Ltd challenged whether:

1. the ads misleadingly exaggerated the number of rooms the advertisers had available, and

2. the advertisers could substantiate the claims in the ads that they were the "No 1 Flatshare" site.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

EasyRoommate stated that they would amend their ads and provide evidence for future claims.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA noted that EasyRoommate had not provided evidence that showed the number of rooms they had had available or that they offered more rooms than their competitors.  We welcomed their assurance that they would amend their advertising, but because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claims in the ads, we concluded the ads were misleading.

On points 1. & 2. the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form.  We told EasyRoommate not to make similar claims in future without sufficient evidence to support those claims.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)