Ad description

The home page of the website www.victoriaplum.com, for a bathroom store, seen on 9 December 2015, stated “UP TO 60% OFF” and showed a number of product ranges with "up to" discount levels.

Text on the product page for the Arc Basin & Pedestal Large stated "£89.99" with an asterisked price of £194.99 crossed through. The asterisk was linked to text further down the page which stated "When purchased separately". Further text stated "Includes Click Clack Basin Waste - Slotted". Text under the "COMES WITH" tab stated that the basin and pedestal and the basin waste unit were £179 and £15.99 respectively if sold separately.

Issue

Victorian Plumbing, who believed the products were not available to purchase separately, challenged whether the savings claim was misleading.

Response

Victoria Plum said the products had always been available to purchase separately on their website, but that the offer was made up of two products (the basin and pedestal, and the waste unit) that customers had often purchased together. They said the two products had been available to purchase separately on their website for the duration of the offer for a combined price of £194.99. They supplied sales and pricing data which ran from 18 August to 9 December 2015.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the text to which the crossed-through price was linked stated "When purchased separately". We considered that consumers viewing the ad would expect £89.99 to represent a genuine saving when buying the basin and pedestal and the waste unit together as a package against the crossed-through price of £194.99, and that £194.99 was not only the current but also the usual total selling price of the two items when bought separately.

We noted that, in the four months leading up to the ad, the basin and pedestal had been sold for £159 for the first ten days, then for £179 for three and a half weeks, at £89.99 for eight weeks and finally at £179 again for the remaining week before the offer began on 1 December. The waste unit needed to be purchased separately throughout for £15.98 or £16. The crossed-through £194.99 therefore represented the £179 price for the basin and pedestal together with the average price of the waste unit.

We reviewed the sales data provided. We noted that the items were available to purchase separately, but that less than 10% of the sales had taken place when the £159 and £179 prices had applied, with over 90% of sales being at £89.99, which had applied for eight weeks, the longest period for which a particular price had applied in the four months leading up to the ad. We noted the items were also available separately during the offer, again for a total of £194.99, but that this combined price had last applied eight weeks previously and had been in place for only a further week at the time the promotion started. Taking into account the relative lengths of time for which the different prices had applied, and the number of units sold at each price before the promotion started, we considered Victoria Plum had not demonstrated that the crossed-through £194.99 was the usual selling price for the items when bought separately. We therefore concluded that the savings claim 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  3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication.  (Prices).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Victoria Plum Ltd to ensure future savings claims did not mislead about the benefit available.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.17     3.7    


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