Ad description
The Iron Easy website, viewed on 26 April 2011, stated the price for ironing with a 24-hour turnaround as “£9.00 per kg”.
Issue
The complainant, who had used the service and was charged an additional fee for VAT, challenged whether the ad was misleading, because the stated prices were exclusive of VAT.
Response
Iron Easy did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Iron Easy’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We understood the stated prices did not include VAT. Because it appeared the ad was targeted mainly at consumers and the prices were VAT-exclusive, we concluded that it breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
1.7
1.7
Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code.
(Unreasonable delay),
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.18
3.18
Quoted prices must include non-optional taxes, duties, fees and charges that apply to all or most buyers. However, VAT-exclusive prices may be given if all those to whom the price claim is clearly addressed pay no VAT or can recover VAT. Such VAT-exclusive prices must be accompanied by a prominent statement of the amount or rate of VAT payable.
(Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Iron Easy to ensure price statements in future ads included non-optional taxes, charges and fees. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
