ASA Adjudication on Thomas Cook Retail Ltd

Ad

National press and poster ads promoted the Thomas Cook foreign exchange.

The press ad (a) showed a picture of a beach with two children holding a large 20 euro note. Text stated "We beat the Post Office exchange rates* 0% commission too". The asterisk was linked to small print that stated "Offer applies to transactions at Thomas Cook and Going Places high street travel stores only and to rates at Post Office high street outlets for an equivalent transaction on the same day. Offer applies to new transactions only and can be withdrawn without notice".

The poster ad (b) showed a child on a beach holding a large 20 euro note buying a balloon and contained the same text and footnote as ad (a).

Issue

The Post Office Ltd (the Post Office) and one member of the public challenged whether the claim "We beat the Post Office exchange rates*" was misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Thomas Cook Retail Ltd (Thomas Cook) said they monitored national Post Office exchange rates and sent a copy of the rates they had offered during the campaign compared with the Post Office for US Dollars and Euros for amounts above and below £500. They said that to the best of their knowledge, the Post Office was operating with one national set of high street exchange rates when the campaign began.

They said that, shortly after the launch of their campaign, the Post Office began to implement differential pricing in a small percentage of their branches. They said they had therefore issued strict instructions to their stores to ensure that they beat their local Post Office branch, and sent a copy of the e-mails containing those instructions. They said that even if they had not issued those instructions, they would still have beaten the national rates offered by the Post Office at 97.58% of their outlets.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA compared the exchange rates sent by Thomas Cook with the rates offered by the Post Office. We noted that on the day ads (a) and (b) first appeared, and the following day, the 301 Post Office branches offering differential pricing offered better exchange rates for US dollars for amounts above and below £500. Moreover, we noted the Post Offices policy of differential pricing had not been set up in response to the campaign, but was in existence before the ads appeared on 23 March.

Because the claim "We beat the Post Office exchange rates*" was a price promise, we considered Thomas Cook needed to show that all their branches offered better exchange rates on all currencies than all Post Offices branches from the date the ads appeared. Because that was not the case, and they had not ensured they were able to beat the rates offered by the 301 Post Office branches offering differential pricing, we concluded the claim was unsubstantiated and misleading.

Ad (a) and ad (b) breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty), 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 18.1 (Comparisons with identified competitors).

Action

Ads (a) and (b) must not appear again in their current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)