Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A website for beds and mattresses retailer Beds.co.uk, seen in July 2017. The top left corner of the home page featured a Beds.co.uk logo and text “BIG SALE NOW ON”. A banner, which was also featured near the top of the home page, contained text that stated “THE BIG SALE IS NOW ON OUR BIGGEST EVER SUMMER SALE NOW UP TO 75% OFF THIS JULY”. Below the banner were three text boxes and another banner that stated “EXCLUSIVE DEALS GUARANTEED UNTIL [countdown clock]”. The home page also featured a number of beds, with a product image shown for each product and accompanied by a countdown clock underneath the image, with text that stated “EXCLUSIVE DEALS BUY NOW”. Text below the countdown clock for each product would state a “Regular Price”, a “Deal Price” and the number of items sold. For example, the listing for the “Roma Italian Modern Designer Leather Bed” on the home page showed a countdown clock which counted the days, hours, minutes and seconds, and text below stated “Regular Price: £545.50 [crossed out] Deal Price: £269.00 Sold: 2559”.
The product page for the ‘Canali Modern Designer Leather Bed’ featured two images of a bed frame with pillows and bedding on top. The page also featured drop down boxes from which users could select the size and colour of the bed frame, and the mattress. Text in the 'Description' tab stated “… Sprung Slatted Base Available As Shown In Contemporary Black” and contained information about the length, width and height of the frame. The tab ‘Mattresses’ featured three different mattresses: “LUXURY MEMORY FOAM MATTRESS - BUNDLE OFFER 20% OFF THE MATTRESS IF PURCHASED WITH THE BED This above mattress is the recommended mattress to fit our beds perfectly”, “1500 POCKET SPRING MEMORY FOAM MATTRESS 1500 Individual Pocketed Springs With 2 Inch Memory Foam Layer On Top”, “Alternative option Memory Foam Spring Mattress”, and contained further information about each of the mattresses.
Issue
The ASA received nine complaints:
1. Nine complainants, who believed that after the countdown clocks in the ad reached zero they would reset and the products would remain discounted, challenged whether the countdown clocks and the claims that a “sale” was taking place were misleading and could be substantiated.
2. Two complainants, who believed that the products featured on Beds.co.uk had never been sold at the claimed ‘regular prices’, challenged whether the “regular price” claims were misleading and could be substantiated.
3. One complainant, who believed that the image on the page for the ‘Canali Modern Designer Leather Bed’ was not representative of the bed frame and mattress received, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
1, 2 & 3. Giomani Designs Ltd t/a Beds.co.uk did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Beds.co.uk’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
1. Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers were likely to understand from the claim “OUR BIGGEST EVER SUMMER SALE NOW ON UP TO 75% OFF THIS JULY” to mean that a seasonal Summer sale was taking place. We also considered that consumers were likely to expect from the countdown clocks, one of which was prominently positioned on the home page with other clocks were positioned under each of the products listed, that discounts offered would only be available until the countdown had completed, and that the prices of the products would return to their “regular prices” (the prices at which they were usually sold) after the countdown.
We tracked a number of products during and after the sale. We noted that each countdown would be reset after 24 hours and that the “regular prices” and the discounted offer prices remained the same after each countdown had completed, and even after the Summer or July sale had finished. Because the sale did not appear to be time-limited we concluded that the use of the countdown clocks, and the claims that a “sale was taking place”, were misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (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 8.17.4.E (Significant conditions for promotions).
2. Upheld
We considered that consumers were likely to interpret the crossed out prices that were labelled “Regular price”, in conjunction with the claim “OUR BIGGEST EVER SUMMER SALE NOW ON UP TO 75% OFF THIS JULY”, to represent the prices at which the products were usually sold on the Beds.co.uk website, prior to the Summer sale. For example, we considered that consumers were likely to expect that the price claim “Regular price: £545.00” made for the Roma Italian Modern Designer Leather Bed meant that £545 was the price at which that product was usually sold on Beds.co.uk, prior to the start of the Summer sale. In the absence of any evidence to demonstrate that the “regular prices” were the usual selling prices, and that consumers would achieve genuine savings against those usual selling prices, we concluded that the “regular price” claims were misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (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 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Prices).
3. Upheld
We noted that the product page for the ‘Canali Modern Design Leather Bed’ featured images of the bed frame with bedding and pillows. The tab titled ‘Mattresses’ on the page featured three mattresses, one of which was the ‘Luxury Memory Foam Mattress’. The description of that mattress stated “This above mattress is the recommended mattress to fit our beds perfectly”. We considered that consumers were likely to expect the images of the bed frame to be an accurate representation of the product in terms of height, dimensions and finish, and also how the bed might appear when made up. We also considered that, because of the claim that the ‘Luxury Memory Foam Mattress’ was recommended as the perfect fit, consumers were likely to expect that the images represented how the bed might appear with the ‘Luxury Memory Foam Mattress’, and that it was likely to sit at a similar height relative to the bed frame as shown in the images.
We understood that the complainant purchased the bed frame and the recommended foam mattress, and noted that the mattress rested much lower in the base of the bed frame than they had expected from the product images. We also understood that the complainant was subsequently informed by Beds.co.uk that the product images showed the bed frame with the ‘1500 Pocket Spring Memory Foam Mattress’. We had not received any comments or evidence from Beds.co.uk to demonstrate that the product images actually represented the height and dimensions of the bed frame with the ‘1500 Pocket Spring Memory Foam Mattress’. We considered that, even if that was the case, the ad did not make clear that the images showed the bed frame with the ‘1500 Pocket Spring Memory Foam Mattress’ on top.
For those reasons, we considered that the images were not an accurate representation of the advertised product and that the ad was misleading.
On that point, 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 (Misleading advertising) and 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).
Action
The ad must not appear in its current form again. We told Beds.co.uk to ensure that future ads did not misleadingly imply that discount promotions were time limited, for example by using countdown clocks and making claims that a sale was taking place, if that was not the case. We also told them to ensure that future ads did not make savings claims that were likely to be understood as representing savings from the usual selling prices of the products, unless they held adequate evidence to substantiate those claims. Finally, we told them to ensure that the images of their products were representative of the products that consumers would actually receive.
