ASA Adjudication on Ryanair Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for Ryanair, featured large onscreen text that stated "4 MILLION SEATS £0 FARE". A voiceover said "Ryanair, Britain's biggest passenger airline, has released four million zero fare seats on its website in an amazing autumn sale. To book your zero fare seat, departing from one of 20 UK airports, just click on to Ryanair.com, the website of Britain's biggest passenger airline. All fares under this offer are zero. Only taxes and charges are payable and we guarantee no fuel surcharges." Small text at the bottom stated "Only taxes and charges apply. Subject to availability ... must end Thursday 14th September".

Issue

Monarch Airlines said the ad breached rule 5.3.2 of the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code because it did not state the price of seats inclusive of all non-optional taxes and charges.

BCAP TV Code

Response

The Broadcast Adverting Clearance Centre (BACC) said they refused to clear the ad because it did not appear to comply with Code rule 5.3.2. They said they told Ryanair that  to offer  seats for £0 was potentially misleading as "£0" did not take into account non-optional taxes and charges.

ITV said they accepted the ad for broadcast because they were firmly of the opinion that it complied with the Code. ITV noted the complaint was from a competitor and not from one of the 16 million viewers who, they maintained, were watching at the time the ad was shown. ITV said Ryanairs agency had submitted the ad to the BACC, but it had decided not to clear it on the basis that it was incorrect to state "zero fare" seats when non-optional taxes and charges were payable. ITV believed the BACCs view on the acceptability of the ad was not unequivocal; although the BACC had said the ad would result in complaints to the ASA, they had not indicated whether they believed the complaints would be upheld or not.  ITV said it was the responsibility of the broadcaster to ensure compliance with the Code and although they valued the opinions of the BACC, with which they usually agreed, they were not bound to follow their recommendations if they believed the ad complied with the Code.  ITV said they had also consulted a local Trading Standards officer who confirmed the ad complied with the Consumer Protection Act 1997.

ITV said they believed that the cost of a flight comprised two elements: the fare and the airport taxes and ancillary charges. They pointed out that the ad, in both the onscreen text and the voiceover, made clear that consumers had to pay "taxes and charges".  They believed a reasonable viewer would understand that, although the fare payable would be £0, the flight cost would be comprised of whatever taxes and charges were applicable at the departure airport.  ITV believed the word "zero" was not the same as the word "free", which they acknowledged might have confused viewers. They maintained that the word "free" implied there was nothing to pay at all, whereas the reference to "zero fare" was an appropriate description of the cost of one element of the flight cost.  ITV said the claim, when taken in the context of the ad, together with prominent onscreen text and an unambiguous voiceover, could not mislead consumers.

ITV noted Code rule 5.3.2(a) stated "Quoted prices must be inclusive of all non-optional taxes, duties and fees which apply to all buyers" and that the guidance note stated "If a non-optional charge is variable and therefore impossible to quantify, advertising should make clear that it is excluded from the quoted price".  They pointed out that there were 20 departure airports linked to the offer, which had varying levels of non-optional charges. ITV believed it would be unreasonable to expect an advertiser to note all the possible flight costs given the space and time limitations of the TV ad.  As such, they believed the ad complied with the Code.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the BACC had not cleared the ad but noted the Code allowed for the exclusion of non-optional charges from the stated price if those charges were impossible to quantify.  We also noted ITVs view that a flight cost was comprised of constituent parts and accepted that the non-optional charges associated with the offer varied between the different departure airports.  We understood, however, that the non-optional charges, for the 20 UK airports included in the offer, were in a defined range of between £11.70 and £21.70 dependent upon the point of departure.  We noted, therefore, the lowest amount payable for a seat, under the terms of the promotion, was £11.70.  Although we did not expect Ryanair to include the precise details of the non-optional charges for all points of departure, we considered that it was reasonable for them to state the lowest cost that a significant enough number of customers would have to pay, precede that price with "from" and indicate that the cost varied depending on the departure point.  Because the non-optional charges were not impossible to quantify, we considered that the ad was in breach of the Code.  

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 5.3.2 (Pricing requirements).

Action

The ad must not appear in its present form again.