Background
Ad description
The website www.kgbdeals.co.uk, visited on 14 March, offered a holiday to Sardinia for £209. Text in the body copy stated "£209 for a three-night, half board Sardinia break for two at the Grand Hotel Corallaro Santa Teresa di Gallura, worth up to £470 - save up to 56% including return flights!" The "need to know" section stated "This kgboffer is based on two people sharing - two vouchers must be purchased to complete the offer".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the need to purchase two vouchers contradicted the claim "£209 for a three-night, half board Sardinia break for two at the Grand Hotel Corallaro Santa Teresa di Gallura, worth up to £470 - save up to 56% including return flights!"
Response
kgb (UK) Ltd (kgb) said the offer in question should have stated that the value of the offer was £470 per person and that the discounted price was to be £209 per person. They stated that the incorrect wording of the offer was the result of an error by their publishing team.
They stated that, although it was a requirement that two vouchers had to be purchased, the consumer's total spend would have been £418 for a holiday for two and the advertised discount (56%) was therefore correct, because the total value of the offer was £940. They said it had not been their intention to mislead consumers and they pointed out that, at the same time the offer was running, they had been running five other offers involving the same hotel, all of which stated that the prices quoted were per person.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that the wording of the offer had been produced in error and that it was inconsistent with other offers advertised by kgb, which stated that advertised prices were per person. However, we considered that consumers would have expected to be able to get the holiday for two people for a total cost of £209 as a result of the offer. Because the actual cost of the holiday was £209 per person, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
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
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told kgb to ensure that offers clearly stated that prices were per person where applicable in future.
