Ad description
A banner ad on Yahoo.com for Top Rent A Car, seen on 4 May, stated “Top Rent A Car Bulgaria NEW FORD FIESTA from €8/day BOOK”.
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the car was not available at the advertised price, challenged whether the ad was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Top Rent A Car Ltd did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Top Rent A Car’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.
Upheld
We considered that consumers would interpret from the claim that the new model of the Ford Fiesta would be available to rent at the price of €8 per day. We understood from the complainant that the car was not available at the advertised “from” price and in the absence of any information from the advertiser to demonstrate that was not the case, we concluded that 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. (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 3.28 3.28 Marketing communications that quote a price for a featured product must state any reasonable grounds the marketer has for believing that it might not be able to supply the advertised (or an equivalent) product at the advertised price within a reasonable period and in reasonable quantities. In particular: (Availability).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Top Rent A Car Ltd to ensure that their vehicles were available at the advertised price. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance Team.
