ASA Adjudication on Equi-Sport Horseboxes
Equi-Sport Horseboxes
Newmillerdam Industrial Estate
Barnsley Road
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF2 6QW
Date:
7 September 2011
Media:
Internet (on own site)
Sector:
Business
Number of complaints:
1
Complaint Ref:
A11-160438
Ad
A photograph of a green and silver horse van appeared on www.equi-sport.co.uk on 26 May 2011. The license plate was visible.
Issue
The complainant, who owned the pictured van and believed it was identifiable because of the visible license plate, challenged whether the advertisers had breached the Code as they had not obtained his written permission to feature his van in their advertising.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
Response
Equi-Sport Horseboxes acknowledged receipt of the complaint but did not provide a response.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Equi-Sport Horseboxes' lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted the Code urged advertisers to obtain written permission before portraying a member of the public's identifiable possessions in their advertising. We noted that the license plate of the horsebox was visible and we considered that it would be possible to identify the horsebox as belonging to the complainant. We considered that Equi-Sport Horseboxes should have obtained written permission to use the horsebox on the website. Because we had not seen evidence that they had such permission, we concluded the website breached the Code.
The website breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 (Unreasonable delay) and 6.1 (Privacy)
Action
The photograph of the horse van concerned should be removed or the license plate number obscured. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
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