ASA Adjudication on MyCityDeal Ltd

Ad

A sales promotion on the website Groupon MyCityDeal stated "Today's deal: £1 instead of £15 for an exhilarating all-day paintballing session including kit, 100 paintballs and lunch at EK Paintball - Save 93%".

Further text stated "Highlights - Pay £1 for £15 worth of paintballing - Full day event: kit, 100 paintballs and lunch included - Experience the exhilarating sport of paintball with 6 different arenas" and "Fine print - Voucher arrives after deal ends - 1 voucher per person - Valid for 3 months - Not valid with other offers".

Issue

The complainant objected that the ad was misleading because:

1. the price for the same package booked directly with EK Paintball was £10 rather than £15 as quoted in the ad;

2. it did not mention that EK Paintball recommended to customers that they would require approximately 100 paintballs per game and in order to participate in a full-day session of eight games customers would therefore be required to purchase further paintballs than those included in the promotion;

3. it did not mention that if a customer chose only to participate in a half-day session because they did not want to purchase more paintballs, they would not be entitled to lunch;

4. it did not include any reference to the non-refundable deposit of £9.99 per person required by EK Paintball when making a booking.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

MyCityDeal Ltd (MyCityDeal) said that they had sold 1,004 vouchers for the offer, which featured on their website for the whole of 14 May 2010. They said they had received complaints from five customers who between them had bought 54 vouchers, and that all the complainants had been given a full refund, including the person they believed had complained to the ASA. MyCityDeal provided a copy of their Cooperation Agreement with EK Paintball and correspondence from EK Paintball giving their response to the complaint.

1. EK Paintball said that on the day the offer was available on MyCityDeals website, the price of the package which was most similar to that included in the offer was £10 for equipment, entry and 100 paintballs and £5 for lunch. They said that their prices constantly changed as they sought to undercut their competitors. They provided copies of invoices which showed that at some point between 8 June and 2 July the price of the similar package had been reduced from £15 to £10 per person. MyCityDeal asserted that the price amendment did not affect the service that the voucher holders received.

2. EK Paintball said that if players wanted to use 100 paintballs for the whole day they could. They said that in no circumstances did they pressurise anyone to purchase more paintballs, although if asked, they did tell people the average number of paintballs their customers generally used. They said it was obvious that they would hope to sell more paintballs to customers that had received a package worth £15 for £1 to try to cover their loss. MyCityDeal added that it was clearly stated that 100 paintballs were included in the offer, and the customer purchased the voucher on those terms. They said that one of the people they had refunded had requested a refund because at the time of booking EK Paintball had explained that 100 paintballs might not last the whole day.

3. EK Paintball said that when a customer booked using the voucher they were booked in for a full day, and lunch was therefore included. They said that it was not uncommon for players who had paid for a full day to participate in a half-days play and then leave after eating their lunch. They added that, where voucher holders did not want to play for a full day, they had been given the option of playing for half a day with no lunch included. MyCityDeal said that EK Paintball had told them that on one occasion they had been unable to provide lunch to two voucher holders, and had provided them with 100 extra balls each as a gesture of goodwill. They said that they had only had one complaint that lunch was not included with a half-day of play, and they believed that this was the complainant who had contacted the ASA.

4. EK Paintball said that two weeks after the offer appeared on the MyCityDeal website they added a £7 per person no-show deposit because on one occasion 40 players had booked in but only eight had turned up on the day. They said that most people understood the need for a deposit and that players were either given 100 extra paintballs (which cost £7) on their arrival or the money was refunded back to their card. They said that they had been flexible and in most cases only took the deposit for groups of 20 or more, and in some cases they had waived the deposit entirely.

MyCityDeal noted that their signed Cooperation Agreement with EK Paintball did not make provision for a deposit. They said that they had received one complaint that EK Paintball had requested a deposit at the time of booking, and they had given that person a full refund for their vouchers. They said that the experience of no-shows during the promotion had been a commercial learning experience for EK Paintball and as a result they had now introduced a deposit of £9.99 per person for all bookings.

Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA considered that, because the price of the similar package was £15 at the time the voucher was available on MyCityDeals website, the price was not reduced until several weeks after that, and the price amendment did not change what was offered to voucher holders on the day, there was no consumer detriment as a result of the price change. We concluded that the price quoted in the promotion was not misleading.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 11) clauses 7.1, 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules - Introduction) but did not find it in breach.

2. Upheld

We considered that the claims "all-day paintballing session including kit, 100 paintballs and lunch at EK Paintball" and "Full day event: kit, 100 paintballs and lunch included - Experience the exhilarating sport of paintball with 6 different arenas" could be taken to imply that 100 paintballs were likely to last for a full-day session which would involve at least six games of paintball. We considered that the voucher offer might particularly appeal to people who had not played paintball before, and it was unlikely that they would be aware that 100 paintballs would probably not last for a full day of games. We noted that EK Paintballs website stated that players would use an average of 500 - 800 paintballs for a full day. We considered that, because it was likely that voucher holders would need to purchase more paintballs in order to participate in a full day of paintballing, the voucher should have made clear that customers would be likely to incur the cost of further paintballs at £7 per 100.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 11) clauses 7.1, 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules - Introduction).

3. Upheld

We acknowledged that at the time of booking EK Paintball had made voucher holders aware that 100 paintballs were unlikely to last the whole day, and that they had attempted to accommodate those customers who did not want to buy extra paintballs by offering them a half-day session instead, without lunch. However, we considered that because the voucher stated that lunch was included, and it was not uncommon for players who had paid the full package price to leave after eating lunch, voucher holders were entitled to lunch irrespective of whether they stayed for a half- or full-day of paintballing. We considered that voucher holders who had not been offered lunch had been dealt with unfairly and had been caused unnecessary disappointment.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 11) clause 27.4 (Sales promotion rules - Introduction).

4. Upheld

We noted that EK Paintball and MyCityDeal had said that due to a number of no-shows from voucher holders, EK Paintball had instituted a £7 deposit per person two weeks after the offer appeared. We noted MyCityDeals assertion that the deposit was fully refundable if the booking was cancelled at least 24 hours in advance, and that for those customers who fulfilled their booking the deposit was used towards buying extra paintballs or was refunded back to the customers account. We also noted that MyCityDeal had given a refund to one voucher holder who did not want to pay the deposit. However, we noted that if someone wanted to book in a large group they would have to make a significant payment, for example a party of 20 would have to pay a deposit of £140, which we considered sizeable. If some of those people were unable to attend at short notice the person who paid the deposit would run the risk of losing some of it. We concluded that by changing the terms of the promotion to include a deposit, voucher holders had been dealt with unfairly and the promotion breached the Code.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 11) clause 27.4 (Sales promotion rules - Introduction).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told MyCityDeal to ensure that all significant terms and conditions of promotions were stated on their vouchers.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)