ASA Adjudication on uSwitch Ltd

Ad

British Gas complained about a national press and TV ad for uSwitch, a utilities price comparison website:

a. The national press ad was headlined "You could save up to £325 a year on your Gas & Electricity*". The asterisk was linked to small print that stated "*At least 20% of customers who switched gas and electricity with uSwitch.com between 1st January and 30th June 2006 saved at least £325".

b. The TV ad opened with a man sitting on a sofa, rifling through paperwork. A voice-over stated "Wanna save money on bills?". At that point, the doorbell rang; on opening the door, the man was greeted by a gospel choir. The lead vocalist, wearing a blue jumpsuit emblazoned with "u", sang out "You gotta switch!". The choir entered the house, singing. The lead singer clicked open a page on the man's lap top computer and the voice-over continued "uSwitch.com could save you up to £529 on your energy and home phone bills by switching your suppliers". The lap top screen displayed the text "Save up to £529 on your bills". The voice-over continued "Our free impartial service also compares financial services products and car insurance, helping you find great deals". The choir sang a rousing chorus of "You'll save" before leaving the house.

Issue

British Gas believed:

1. the proportion of site users who had both switched and received the savings mentioned in ad (a) was not representative of the savings most site visitors were likely to receive, because only a small proportion of site visitors switched;

2. the claims in ad (a) were based on out-of-date figures and

3. the saving quoted in ad (b) did not correspond to figures quoted elsewhere by uSwitch.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

BCAP TV Code

Response

Express Newspapers said they had passed the enquiry to uSwitch for response on their behalf.

1. uSwitch explained that they offered both a comparison and switching service. They said all savings claims were thoroughly substantiated and clearly qualified. They pointed out that they used data on customers who had switched, not data on all site visitors, as the basis for their savings claims, because they had found no consistent method of measuring visitors who intended to switch but subsequently chose not to.

They said their advertising focused on their switching facility and, for that reason, the savings quoted related to customers who actively switched; they added that the total number of customers who switched and made a saving of over £325 a year was considerable. They sent evidence to show that at least 20% of customers who switched both gas and electricity between January and June 2006 saved at least £325.

2. uSwitch said they applied a robust and consistent method in the calculation and representation of claimed savings. They said the £325 saving was based on the top 20% of savings achieved by customers who switched both gas and electricity through uSwitch in the first six months of 2006. They explained that, at the beginning of 2007, they repeated their analysis, using data from the whole of 2006 and found that over 16% saved at least £325. They sent information that showed, for the period February to April 2007, the percentage of customers who switched both services with them and saved at least £325 was more than 14%. They said they had adjusted the caveat in more recent ads to reflect up-to-date, revised data.

3. uSwitch explained that the £529 combined saving was calculated from all customers who switched gas and electricity (dual fuel) as well as their home telephone supplier between 1 January and 3 October 2006; they said the claim was not based on adding the savings made by those who switched only their duel fuel supplier to the savings made by those who switched only their telephone supplier, as they believed the complainants had done. They asserted that the quoted saving applied to at least 10% of applicable customers.

The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) said they had received comprehensive substantiation from uSwitch prior to the ads clearance. They said the substantiation showed that at least 10% of those who switched suppliers saved at least £529 and pointed out that the ad stated "up to" in connection with those likely to save the stated amount. They submitted evidence used by uSwitch in support of the claim during the pre-clearance process, which showed that more than 10% of customers who switched both their energy and home phone suppliers with uSwitch between January and October 2006 saved more than £529.

Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA understood British Gas's concern that only a small proportion of website visitors actually switched services and those consumers were likely to be the highest savers. They therefore believed the number of consumers who switched services and saved the claimed amount was disproportionate to the overall number who visited the site.

We considered, however, that the claim "You could save up to £325 a year on your Gas & Electricity*", in conjunction with the qualification it was asterisked to, implied those who received a price comparison and decided to switch both their gas and electricity suppliers could save up to £325; it was unlikely to be seen as suggesting that 20% of all site visitors would save £325. We had seen substantiation to show that at least 20% of uSwitch customers in the given period had achieved the quoted saving by switching their gas and electricity suppliers. We concluded that the savings figure of £325 was unlikely to be seen as representative of the savings most site visitors would receive.

2. Not upheld

We noted the complainants concern that the ads claim was based on information taken from six months previously, which, they believed, rendered it out-of-date because of changes in the market. They said gas and electricity suppliers had increased their prices during the period from January to June 2006 so the potential for saving with uSwitch was greater during that period than it currently was.

While we appreciated that the data was taken from the previous years analysis, we noted more recent data submitted by uSwitch showed that the claim "You could save up to £325 a year on your Gas & Electricity*" remained relevant, because more than 10% of customers who switched were still able to save that amount. We also noted the ad made clear that the savings claim was based from January to June 2006 and uSwitch had adjusted the qualification in more recent ads to reflect the up-to-date percentage of customers who could save. We considered that, because the period the claims were based on had been clarified and because uSwitch had been able to show that the savings figure was appropriate according to their up-to-date information, the claims were not based on out-of-date figures.

On points 1 & 2, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

3. Not upheld

We considered that the £529 savings claim would be seen as applying to customers who switched both their energy and home phone suppliers; it did not imply the total saving made by customers who switched only energy when added to the total saving made by those who switched home phone supplier could be £529. Although the ad did not clarify this, we noted the savings claim was based on customer analysis between 1 January and 3 October 2006. We also noted ad (b) was shown over the Christmas period.

Because we had seen evidence to show that at least 10% of customers who switched both their energy and home phone suppliers together saved at least £529 during a period close to the time when the ad was broadcast, we were satisfied on this point.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence), 5.2.2 (Implications) and 5.3.1 (Accurate pricing) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)