Ad description
An e-mail from Groupon stated “Laser Teeth Whitening at Smart Smile for £89 (value £350)”.
Issue
The complainant, who received the e-mail on 14 June 2011 and believed the value of the teeth whitening treatment had been exaggerated, challenged whether the claim was misleading.
Response
Groupon said the deal was approved on 5 May 2011, before they implemented a price verification process. They said the value of the deal was based on the service offered by the partner at the time. They submitted a screen shot of their partner's website and a document they said was a receipt and believed this substantiated the claim.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA welcomed Groupon's assurance that they had implemented a price verification process that, in future, required their partners to provide documentary proof of all prices quoted as original values. We noted the document they submitted stated “Thank you for your order: Smart-smile of Yorkshire Whitening Service ... £350”. However, it was not clear from the document whether a transaction had been made for £350 by a customer. Furthermore, we noted that while the document stated “Whitening Service”, the ad stated “Laser Teeth Whitening”. Because we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that laser teeth whitening at Smart Smile generally cost £350, we considered the savings claim had not been substantiated and therefore concluded that it was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation), 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration) and 3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication. (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Groupon not to make savings claims in future unless they held relevant evidence to substantiate them.
