ASA Adjudication on Pet Plan Ltd
Pet Plan Ltd
57 Ladymead
Guildford
Surrey
GU1 1DB
Date:
26 September 2012
Media:
Internet (social networking)
Sector:
Financial
Number of complaints:
1
Complaint Ref:
A12-199639
Ad
A prize promotion on the @PetplanUK Twitter feed. Text stated "To celebrate #petdentalcare month we are giving away 10 goodie bags filled full of dental treats. Follow and RT to win!" #competition".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the promotion breached the Code, because significant conditions, including the closing date, were not made clear.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
Response
Pet Plan said there were no terms and conditions available for the promotion. However, that was an isolated incident and they were committed to being transparent with consumers. They said they had template terms and conditions for use in their promotions and, having received the complaint, they had reiterated internally the need to ensure they were properly implemented when running a prize promotion via social media. They submitted a copy of their template terms and conditions for different social media and said they were updating their website to include them. They also said a link to those terms and conditions would be added to any tweets that included prize draws or competitions.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that there were no terms and conditions available. We also noted that all applicable significant conditions for promotions should be communicated before or at the time of entry, and that consumers could enter, by retweeting the message, once they had seen the tweet. We therefore considered all applicable significant conditions, such as the closing date and how winners would be selected, should have been made clear before or in the tweet that included details of how to enter, which was also a significant condition. Because that was not the case, and because participants were not able to retain conditions or easily access them throughout the promotion, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 8.17 (Significant conditions for promotions) and 8.28 (Prize promotions).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Pet Plan to ensure in future that all applicable significant conditions of promotions were communicated before or at the time of entry. We also told them to ensure participants were able to retain conditions or easily access them throughout the promotion.
