ASA Adjudication on Mercedes-Benz (United Kingdom) Ltd

Ad

A press ad for Mercedes-Benz vehicles stated “It’s a pleasure, but not a guilty one.” The body copy stated “CO2 emissions for the range are down to 139g/km*, which means it’s better for the environment. It also means you pay less tax. And there’s something else that’s lower than you’d expected as well. The price.” The asterisk linked to a footnote which stated “CO2 emissions: 139-261/km … Based on E250 CDI SE manual available at launch. Model shown is a Mercedes-Benz E250 CDI Sport.”

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claim "CO2 emissions for the range are down to 139g/km" exaggerated the level of CO2 emissions for the E-Class Saloon range.

CAP Code

Response

Mercedes-Benz said they consulted CAP Copy Advice and the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) prior to publication and amended the copy to state that emissions figures for the range were "down to 139 g/km".  They believed they took all reasonable steps to ensure that the claims could be substantiated and did not over claim for the emissions for the range.  In addition, they supplied us with an E-Class Saloon price list that listed the CO2 emissions for each vehicle in the range.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that CO2 emissions for the range were between 139 g/km and 261 g/km, which corresponded to the Department for Transport (DfT) fuel economy bands E to M respectively.  We understood that the exact CO2 emissions figure per vehicle was dependent on a number of possible variations including the choice between petrol and diesel, manual and automatic gearbox, and accounting for the various alloy wheel size, in total there were 24 possible combinations of which two had an emissions figure of 139 g/km.  

We considered that the claim "CO2 emissions for the range are down to 139 g/km*, which means its better for the environment" was likely to be understood by readers as meaning that the range as a whole was low in emissions relative to previous models and also when compared with other vehicles in the class.  We noted, however, that although those vehicles in the range with the lowest emissions of 139 g/kg compared favourably with competitors vehicles of a similar class, a number of vehicles in the range had  emissions levels that were at the higher end of the DfT emissions bandings.  We acknowledged that the claim linked to a footnote which stated "CO2 emissions: 139-261/km". However, we considered that the headline claim would give the impression to readers that a significant proportion of the range had achieved the lowest emissions figure, or a figure that was relatively low for the class, when that was not the case.  We concluded that the body copy of the  ad misleadingly implied that the  whole E-Class Saloon range had emissions of 139 g/kg or similar and the claim was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 48.6 (Motoring), 49.1 and 49.2 (Environmental claims).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)