Ad description
Claims on www.bodycleanseplus.com, promoting a slimming product, stated "YES! Send My TRIAL ORDER Today" and featured an application form that stated "TELL US WHERE TO SEND YOUR TRIAL BOTTLE!" and a link to order the product which stated "RUSH MY ORDER!". A link to terms and conditions was included at the bottom of the page.
The order page listed the cost of the product as "£0.00" with a "Shipping & Handling" cost of "£4.68". Text below stated "Offer Terms: By placing your order today you'll be shipped a 30 day supply of Body Cleanse Plus (you just pay P&P). If you feel Body Cleanse Plus is not for you, cancel within 14 days from today to avoid the purchase fee of £37.50 item and enrolment in the auto-shipment program, which sends you a bottle of Body Cleanse Plus every 30 days starting 30 days after your trial period starts, at the low price of £37.50. By ordering you agree to the full terms and conditions shown here. To cancel anytime call 0844 XXX XXXX. Limited Quantities Available! Sign Up Today!".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that customers would automatically be charged for a subscription if they did not return the product and cancel the subscription within 14 days, challenged whether the implied reference to a free trial was misleading.
Response
Bodycleanseplus said they had ceased operations on 19 December 2012.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that the claims were still appearing and consumers could still access the order form and input their details in the online form to receive the product. We noted we had not seen any documentation showing that the advertiser's operations had ceased.
We noted that claims on the order page stated "Tell us where to send your trial bottle!" and "Yes! Claim your Trial Bottle Today!" and the subsequent order form web page listed the trial product "Body Cleanse Plus" as costing "£0.00" with a "Shipping & Handling" cost of "£4.68". We considered that consumers would therefore understand that there would be no financial commitment other than the delivery of the trial product.
Although small text at the bottom of the ad stated "By placing your order today, you'll be shipped a 30 day supply of Body Cleanse Plus (you just pay P&P). If you feel Body Cleanse Plus is not for you, cancel within 14 days from today to avoid the purchase fee of £37.50 per item and enrolment [sic] in the auto-shipment program, which sends you a bottle of Body Cleanse Plus every 30 days starting 30 days after your trial period starts, at the low price of £37.50", we noted that text was not connected to the references to the trial elsewhere on the website and was not presented in such a way that it was likely to be seen by consumers.
We also noted the order form included a pre-ticked box next to text which stated that the visitor agreed to the conditions of the site. We considered that was likely to increase the chances of visitors completing an order for the trial product without being made aware of the charges that would be incurred if the product was not cancelled within 14 days. We also noted that the terms and conditions stated that, in addition to the monthly fee of £37.50, there was a £4.95 postage and packing charge and that "shipping and handling may range from £4.95 to £9.95 and is subject to change without notice".
We considered that the ads failed to make sufficiently clear that potential customers were required to cancel their trial within 14 days in order to avoid incurring the initial £37.50 plus postage and packaging fee and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The claims breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
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),
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),
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
3.10
3.10
Qualifications must be presented clearly.
CAP has published a Help Note on Claims that Require Qualification.
(Qualification),
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) and 9.3 (Distance selling).
Action
The claims must not appear again in their current form. We told the advertisers to make clear all the costs and the full financial commitment of ordering the trial product.
