Ad description

A TV ad promoting home insurance for landlords stated "If you're a landlord, standard home insurance isn't enough ... whether you have one rental property or lots of them, we guarantee to beat the price of any other insurer". On-screen text stated "New customers only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Excludes N.I. Qualifying criteria apply".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claim "we guarantee to beat the price of any other insurer" was misleading, because they understood that Direct Line Group Ltd did not offer cover for landlords with Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

Response

Direct Line Group Ltd stated that there were three main qualifications to their guarantee to beat any other quote, all of which were stated in on-screen text in the ad: insurance cover must be on a like-for-like basis; the guarantee was only available to new customers; and the level of risk involved in insuring the property must be acceptable to them, which was described as the existence of "qualifying criteria". If the risk was deemed to be too high, Direct Line would not insure the property in question, and therefore would not beat any other insurer's quote.

Direct Line said there were no specific exclusions for HMOs under their insurance criteria, but explained that the risks involved in insuring some kinds of HMO, such as sets of bedsits, were unacceptable to their business and as a consequence they would not offer cover for those properties. They stated that, on the other hand, they would insure some student properties, which were quite likely to be HMOs. They said the on-screen text in the ad that stated "Qualifying criteria apply" referred to the possibility of the property in question, including some HMOs, representing an unacceptable risk to their business.

Clearcast said the fact that some properties might not be eligible for cover owing to their risk factor was signalled in the on-screen text "Qualifying criteria apply". They considered that that was an economical way of communicating to the viewer that, because of the complexity of insurance products, not all properties would be covered. On that basis, they did not believe that the ad was likely to mislead.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted that Direct Line applied a risk-based assessment to any property before offering cover, and that they would decline to insure those which were determined as representing an unacceptable risk. We understood that, although many HMOs (properties with at least three tenants, forming more than one household and sharing bathroom or kitchen facilities) would be ineligible for cover by Direct Line because of the degree of risk they posed to the insurer, there was no specific exclusion to that effect.

We considered that viewers were likely to recognise that many factors could affect an insurer's decision to offer cover for a property, and would therefore expect that the claim "we guarantee to beat the price of any other insurer" would be contingent upon Direct Line accepting to insure the property at all. We noted that on-screen text referred to the existence of qualifying criteria, and considered that that conveyed the possibility of limitations to the offer.

We understood that the text "Qualifying criteria apply" referred to the decision made by Direct Line as to whether or not they could insure the property at all, and not to any further decision regarding the price-beat guarantee itself, and that many HMOs were unable to obtain cover from Direct Line because of the company's risk-assessment policy rather than any direct exclusions for that category of property. On that basis, and because we were satisfied that the on-screen reference to qualifying criteria appropriately clarified the claim "we guarantee to beat the price of any other insurer", we concluded that the claim was unlikely to mislead viewers.

We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules  3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.2 3.2 Advertisements must not mislead consumers 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 consumers need in context to make informed decisions about whether or how to buy a product or service. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead consumers depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the advertisement is constrained by time or space, the measures that the advertiser takes to make that information available to consumers by other means.
 (Misleading advertising) and  3.10 3.10 Advertisements must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.  (Qualification), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

BCAP Code

3.1     3.10     3.2    


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