Ad description
Claims in a product listing for a replacement Sony laptop battery (VGP-BPS35) on www.sonylaptopbattery.co.uk, seen in October 2015, stated "Shipping from Hilsea, Portsmouth, EDT [Estimated delivery time] 2- 3 business days (Royal Mail 1st class)".
Issue
The complainant, whose order took two weeks to arrive and was delivered from Hong Kong, challenged whether the claim "Shipping from Hilsea, Portsmouth, EDT [Estimated delivery time] 2- 3 business days (Royal Mail 1st class)" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
sonylaptopbattery.co.uk did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by sonylaptopbattery.co.uk's lack of substantive 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 respond promptly to our enquiries and we told them to do so in future.
We considered the location from which an online order would be despatched and the estimated delivery time for that order was likely to be material information and therefore, they were likely to affect a consumer's decision as to whether or not to place their order. The ad stated that sonylaptopbattery.co.uk would ship the order from Hillsea, Portsmouth and it would be sent by 1st class post via Royal Mail. Furthermore, we noted the postal address listed on the website was located in Hillsea, Portsmouth, which we considered reinforced the impression created by the claim that orders would be despatched from Portsmouth. However, we understood from the complainant that their online order from sonylaptopbattery.co.uk had arrived from Hong Kong and that it had taken two weeks to be delivered. In the absence of a response to the complaint or evidence in support of the claim, we concluded it had not been substantiated and was misleading.
The claims breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 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), 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (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 claims must not appear again in their current form. We told sonylaptopbattery.co.uk not to repeat the claims "Shipping from Hillsea, Portsmouth, EDT [Estimated delivery time] 2- 3 business days (Royal Mail 1st class)" unless they could demonstrate that would always be the case. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
