ASA Adjudication on Beds & Chairs Direct Ltd

Ad

A national press ad, for Beds & Chairs Direct, stated “UP TO 50% off SALE” and featured pictures of adjustable beds and chairs.

Issue

Three complainants, who called to take advantage of the offer but were unable to ascertain whether the prices they were quoted included any discount, challenged whether the offer of up to 50% off was genuine.  

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Beds & Chairs Direct (Beds & Chairs) explained that the company was incorporated in 2005 before being made dormant.  The ad was part of its re-launch which began on 31 January 2009 and publicised their introductory offer, which finished at the end of March.  

Beds & Chairs explained that they stocked eight product lines.  On seven of those lines, they offered 50% off the list price and 40% off the list price of the eighth.  They supplied a copy of their price list dated November 2008.  Beds & Chairs explained that they had originally hoped to re-launch in early January 2009 and, accordingly, had begun preparation in November.  The 'list' or 'retail' price was shown for six models alongside the sale price with the discount applied; two models, the Eden and the Esk, listed only the price with the discount applied.  

Beds & Chairs said they could not produce any evidence to show that the price was increased at the end of the introductory offer; the lead time averaged 30 days from point of order to delivery and all of the 77 orders they had fulfilled had been placed during the introductory offer.

They said the up to 50% off sale was finished, although a new sales promotion was now underway, and they had no plans to use the ad again.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the ad stated "UP TO 50% off SALE" and considered that readers were likely to infer that the goods had previously been sold at a higher price and had been temporarily reduced.  We understood that was not the case and that the ad promoted an introductory offer which finished at the end of March.  We considered that the introductory offer should have been described as such and the claim "UP TO 50% OFF SALE" was therefore likely to mislead.  

We considered that consumers would not have expected items that had been discounted as part of an introductory offer to have previously been sold at a higher price, but would have expected those items to be sold at a higher price when the promotion ended.  We considered that Beds & Chairs needed to be able to show that the items had been sold at a higher price when the introductory offer ended.  

We noted the 'list' or 'retail' prices supplied by Beds & Chairs and understood that they could not show that they had sold goods at those prices because no orders had been placed since the "UP TO 50% off SALE" finished.  We noted another sales promotion was now underway and understood that the items would again be offered at discounted prices.  We were therefore concerned that the goods might not typically be sold at the 'list' or 'retail' prices and the up to 50% offer was therefore not a genuine discount.  We concluded that the claim was misleading.   

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.  We told Beds & Chairs to describe introductory offers as such in future and to ensure that they held documentary evidence to show that items would be sold at a higher price when the introductory offer ended.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)