Ad description
A direct mailing, on 20 April 2011, for Everest solar panels. Text stated "Generate tax-free income with Everest Solar Panels ACT NOW To generate up to £1,614* PER YEAR FOR 25 YEARS TAX-FREE". Small print stated "*Energy Saving Trust Calculator for a 3603 kWh system at an export rate of 50% to the National Grid ...".
Issue
A complainant challenged whether the claim "generate up to £1,614* PER YEAR FOR 25 YEARS TAX-FREE" was misleading, because it did not take into account the costs of installation and upkeep of the solar panels.
Response
Everest Ltd (Everest) said there were no maintenance costs for the system and installation costs were not taken into account when stating the potential amount of income that could be generated by their solar panel systems. They said the reference in the ad to income generated referred to income derived from the kWh generated, and not from any savings that a customer could make by installing the solar panel system.
Everest said the leaflet clearly stated in bold typeface that before proceeding customers had to phone Everest to go through a preliminary suitability check, and that subject to that check a free site visit was conducted, where details of the estimated annual income were provided. They said that for those reasons they did not consider the leaflet to be misleading or to fail to account for installation and maintenance costs.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that while Everest said there were no maintenance costs, the leaflet outlined the benefits of purchasing an after-care package to cover some costs customers were likely to incur during the lifetime of the system. In particular we noted the leaflet stated “Most importantly we replace your Inverter (a critical part of the system), when it comes to the end of its useful life, typically this will be between 10-15 years. Most other companies won’t tell you this and will charge you to replace it, and that’s a very expensive job”. We considered that showed there were upkeep costs to the system.
We noted that installation costs were a necessary upfront cost to begin generating income from the system. We considered that customers would be aware that some capital outlay was required for the system and that they would consider that to be a necessary set up cost that was separate from the resulting annual income stream.
Whilst we did not consider that installation costs needed to be included in the calculation of annual income from the system, we did consider that because upkeep costs were incurred over the life of the system and affected how much a customer would make from their panels over that time, they should have been included in the calculation. We therefore concluded the ad 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.
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),
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) 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 in its current form again.
