ASA Adjudication on Ryanair Ltd

Ad

Two national press ads, for an airline, offered £10 fares.

a. one ad was headlined "Glorious GOTHENBURG £10 ONE WAY".  Small print at the bottom of the ad stated "Book until midnight 04.12.09. Subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply, see Ryanair for details.  Fares exclude optional fees/charges."; and

b. a second ad was headlined "DUSSELDORF £10 ONE WAY" and a smaller subheading stated "WEEZE - ONLY 70 KM FROM DUSSELDORF".  Text stated Fly to Dusseldorf-Weeze airport in the heart of the Lower Rhine…"  Small print at the bottom of the ad stated "Book until midnight 04.12.09. Subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply, see Ryanair for details.  Fares exclude optional fees/charges.".

Issue

EasyJet challenged:

1. the availability of the advertised £10 fares to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf-Weeze;

2. whether the fares in ads (a) and (b) included taxes, charges and check in fees;  

3. whether ads (a) and (b) were misleading, because they did not state the travel dates to which the fares applied; and

4. whether it was misleading to describe Weeze airport as a Dusseldorf airport, when it was 70 km away from Dusseldorf.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Ryanair Ltd (Ryanair) said the offer was widely available during the booking period on the routes from London Stansted to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf-Weeze.  They said they changed the fare from £10 to £5 the day before the ad was published.  They said over 10,000 seats were available during the booking period on the Gothenburg route, while over 22,000 seats were available on the Dusseldorf-Weeze route.  They said that, during the four-day period of the sale, more than half the seats sold to Gothenburg and more than 40% of seats sold to Dusseldorf-Weeze were booked at the £5 promotional fare.  They provided copies of one booking to Gothenburg and one to Dusseldorf-Weeze.  They stated that one booking was made using the free method of online payment (Visa Electron) and the other was made with a payment type, which incurred a £5 handling fee.  They said they had not received any direct complaints from members of the public.

2. They said the fares in the ads included all taxes, charges and non discretionary fees. They provided a number of bookings in support of the claim.

3. They said there was no CAP Code requirement that advertisers should include the specific travel periods of the offers, but stated that the offer was available for travel from 1 January 2010 to 28 February 2010 and this was confirmed on their website during the booking period.  They provided a screenshot from the booking webpage which showed the travel period.

4.  They said Weeze was an IATA designated airport for Dusseldorf, in the same way that Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted were IATA designated airports for London.  They referred to a recent German Court ruling which required them to specify in German ads that "Dusseldorf Weeze" should be qualified by a statement that it was "only 70km from Dusseldorf" and said this qualification was included in the ad, although the Court ruling did not apply to UK advertising.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted that the ads stated £10 ONE WAY" and considered that readers were likely to understand that this was a fixed price and that all seats were available at the advertised price of £10.  We understood that Ryanair had changed the offer to the fare of £5 one way just before the ad was published and noted that that they had provided one booking only to Gothenburg and one to Dusseldorf Weeze that showed the base fare for each flight was £5.  Although we considered that those bookings indicated that some flights may have been available at a lower price than the advertised £10 fare, we did not consider the evidence provided was sufficient to support a claim that all flights were available at £10 one way or at a lower, fixed, base fare.

Because we considered that consumers would understand £10 ONE WAY" to mean that all flights to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf-Weeze were available at £10, and because we had not seen evidence to support that claim, we concluded that the ads were likely to mislead.

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1, 15.2 (Prices), 16.4 (Availability of products) and 27.4 (Sales promotions rules).

2. Not upheld

We noted that the small text stated "Fares excludes optional fees/charges".  Although we understood that some passengers had had to pay extra charges, for example, if they were paying by credit card, we acknowledged that Ryanair had provided documentation which showed that passengers had been able to purchase flights to Gothenberg and Dusseldorf-Weeze for the (£5) base fare, and had not had to pay any additional charges or taxes.  

Because Ryanair had provided evidence which showed that some passengers were able to purchase flights at the (£5) base fare without having to pay any extra taxes, charges or fees, we concluded the ad was unlikely to mislead.

On this point, we investigated the ads under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1, 15.2 (Prices), 16.4 (Availability of products) and 27.4 (Sales promotions rules), but did not find them in breach.

3. Not upheld

We noted that both ads concerned short haul flights, offered at a low promotional cost and considered that most consumers would therefore expect the promotion to cover a relatively short travel period.  We also noted that the travel period appeared on the online booking page.  Although we acknowledged that the ads did not include the travel period to which the fares applied, we considered that the travel period of two months was reasonable and because we did not consider that consumers would be mislead by the omission of the dates in the ads, we concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead on that point.

On this point, we investigated the ads under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1, 15.2 (Prices), 16.4 (Availability of products) and 27.4 (Sales promotions rules), but did not find them in breach.

4. Not upheld

We sought advice and understood that Weeze was listed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) under the metropolitan area of Dusseldorf and was listed as an airport which served that city.  We noted that ad (b) further qualified the destination as "Weeze - only 70km from Dusseldorf" and considered that that additional information made Weezes location in relation to Dusseldorf clear to readers.

Because we understood that Weeze was listed by IATA as an airport which served the city of Dusseldorf and because the ad also made the distance between Weeze and Dusseldorf clear to consumers, we considered that the claim "DUSSELDORF... Weeze - only 70km from Dusseldorf" was unlikely to mislead.

On this point, we investigated the ads under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotions rules), but did not find them in breach.

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form.  We told Ryanair to ensure that all seats were available at the quoted fare, and if not all seats were available at the quoted fare, ads should state prominently that fares were "from".

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)