Ad description
A press ad, for a car scrapping company, viewed in July 2011, stated "End of Life Breakers £300 min. Responsible drivers scrap their vehicles at an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF). Because only an ATF can legally scrap a vehicle. That means any pollutants will be made safe before its [sic] recycled in an environmentally friendly way. What's more, for certain type of vehicle [sic] you'll get a DVLA approved Certificate of Destruction (CoD). A CoD proves that the ATF has told DVLA your vehicle has been scrapped and so is no longer your responsibility. www.direct.gov.uk/motoring". SCRAP CARS £300 MINIMUM PAID FREE COLLECTION SERVICE FOR ALL VEHICLES FREEPHONE 0800 XXXX XXX - 07846 XXXXXX". The ad included logos of the DVLA, the Environment Agency and for BERR. Text at the foot of the ad stated "Environment Agency Registered".
Issue
1. The complainant challenged whether the claim "£300 Minimum" was misleading and could be substantiated, because they received a sum which was much less than £300.
The ASA challenged whether:
2. the ad was misleading because it did not make clear the identity of the advertiser; and
3. the ad misleadingly implied that the advertiser was associated with, or was, an official government body.
Response
End Of Life Vehicles did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by End Of Life Vehicles' 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 them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
1. Upheld
We noted that the ad stated "SCRAP CARS £300 MINIMUM PAID." However, we noted that End Of Life Vehicles did not supply any evidence to support that claim. We therefore considered that the claim had not been substantiated and concluded that the ad was misleading.
On this 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).
2. Upheld
We understood from the complainant that they arranged for their vehicle to be scrapped by contacting the telephone numbers listed in the ad. The complainant also provided a signed document which confirmed that they had given permission for the contractor to dismantle their car. We noted the company name on that document differed from the name of the company that had placed the ad. We were therefore concerned that the ad did not make clear the true identity of the advertiser. On that basis, we considered that the ad was likely to mislead consumers to their detriment and therefore concluded that the ad breached the Code.
On this 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.
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
3.4.2
3.4.2
the identity (for example, a trading name) and geographical address of the marketer and any other trader on whose behalf the marketer is acting
3.5
3.5
Marketing communications must not materially mislead by omitting the identity of the marketer.
Some marketing communications must include the marketer's identity and contact details. Marketing communications that fall under the Database Practice or Employment sections of the Code must comply with the more detailed rules in those sections.
Marketers should note the law requires marketers to identify themselves in some marketing communications. Marketers should take legal advice.
(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).
3. Upheld
We noted the ad was headed "End Of Life" and understood there was a directive of the same name which sought to reduce the amount of waste that was produced when vehicles were scrapped. We noted the ad featured the logos of the DVLA, the Environment Agency and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and included a link to the Directgov motoring website. We also noted the ad stated that responsible drivers scrapped their vehicles at an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF) and that only an ATF could legally scrap a vehicle. In that context, we considered that consumers were likely to interpret the ad to mean that End Of Life Vehicles were associated with, or were, an official government body. Since we had not seen any evidence to demonstrate that that was the case, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead consumers.
On this 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 3.50 3.50 Marketing communications must not display a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation. Marketing communications must not claim that the marketer (or any other entity referred to), the marketing communication or the advertised product has been approved, endorsed or authorised by any public or other body if it has not or without complying with the terms of the approval, endorsement or authorisation. and 3.51 3.51 Marketing communications must not falsely claim that the marketer, or other entity referred to in the marketing communication, is a signatory to a code of conduct. They must not falsely claim that a code of conduct has an endorsement from a public or other body. (Endorsements and testimonials).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We asked CAP to inform its members of the problem with End Of Life Vehicles. We told End Of Life Vehicles to ensure that they held robust substantiation to support all claims in future. We also told them to make clear their true identity in all future ads and to ensure that future ads did not imply that they were associated with, or were, an official government body, if that was not the case.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
3.1 3.3 3.4.2 3.5 3.50 3.51 3.7
