Ad description

A website for KAT UK, www.katuk.co.uk, for roof lanterns, seen on 21 February 2019, stated that their roof lanterns were the “slimmest, strongest and most thermally efficient Lantern Roof in Europe.”

 

Issue

Duplus Architectural Systems, who understood that the product used aluminium bars which were less thermally efficient and not as strong or slim as other products available on the market, challenged whether the claim “slimmest, strongest and most thermally efficient Lantern Roof in Europe” was misleading and could be substantiated.

 

Response

KAT UK did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.

 

Assessment

The ASA was concerned by KAT UK’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded of them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

Upheld

We considered that consumers would interpret the claim “slimmest, strongest and most thermally efficient Lantern Roof in Europe” to mean that KAT UK’s lantern roof was slimmer, stronger and more thermally efficient than all other lantern roofs available in Europe. We therefore expected KAT UK to provide evidence to support the claim that their product was slimmer, stronger and more thermally efficient than all other comparable products sold in Europe. Because KAT UK did not provide any evidence to substantiate their claims, we concluded that the claim that their lantern roof was the “Slimmest, strongest and most thermally efficient lantern roof in Europe” was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 3.11 (Exaggeration) and 3.33 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).

 

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told KAT UK not to state or imply that their lantern roofs were thinner, stronger or more thermally efficient than competitor products. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.

 

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.7     3.1     3.7     3.33     3.11    


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