Ad description

A quoted price for car hire in Europe on www.enjoycarhire.com stated "Ford Ka or similar £108.24 (€135.30)" and included a link for more details about the quote. When clicked on, those details appeared in a pop-up box under the headline "Inclusive", "Extras", "Insurance Coverage", "Payment" and "Enjoy Car Hire General Terms". Under "Extras" text stated "Fuel Policy: Customer will be charged a full tank of fuel on arrival the car must then be returned empty, refunds will not be issued for any unused fuel ...".

The general terms and conditions for the website stated "Fuel Policies. Enjoy Car Hire work with a number of suppliers and the fuel policy differs per supplier and can be found in the ‘rate details’ section of the quote screen. In all cases fuel is not included in the final price".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the quoted price was misleading and could be substantiated because it did not include the compulsory fuel charge levied by the local supplier, which was paid on collection of the car.

Response

Enjoy Car Hire (ECH), a car rental broker service, confirmed that the cost of the fuel, as described in the fuel policy for the quoted car, was excluded from their quoted price, that their own terms and conditions stated that was the case: that fuel was a compulsory cost and was paid locally. They said those terms and conditions referred consumers to "rate details" of the quote page, which set out the relevant fuel policy for the quoted car. They said consumers paid for the fuel (as set out in the fuel policy) when they collected the car locally. They also explained that they were not aware of how much consumers would have to pay nor were they responsible for setting the price; that was set by the local supplier at their discretion.

ECH said that it would be extremely difficult for them to state how much consumers would have to pay on collection of the car locally because it varied between local suppliers and countries and it was also dependent on the rental car. They added that there could be occasions when a consumer had hired a small car but on arrival, the rental company had upgraded them to a larger car. They felt if they included information about fuel costs for a small car, then consumers would be misled by that information in the event they were upgraded to a larger car, which required more fuel resulting in a more expensive fuel charge.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood the price charged by the local supplier was set at their discretion and that fee was a compulsory one payable by all of ECH's customers. Although ECH's terms and conditions page stated fuel was excluded from the price and the pop-up box also included that information, we considered it was a significant condition that would affect the price paid by the consumer and therefore could affect their decision to proceed with the booking. Because of that, we considered the information should have been more prominent and the price claim should have been immediately qualified on the same page to make that clear.

While the Code required all non-optional charges to be included in price claims, where a charge was payable but could not be calculated in advance, advertisers were required to make that clear and explain how the fee would be calculated. We considered that the "fuel policy" for the quoted car was sufficient to explain how the fuel charge would be calculated, for example drivers must pay for a full tank on collection and drop off with an empty tank and that consumers would pay locally for fuel. However, because we understood the local supplier set the price at their discretion, we considered that it was possible that some local suppliers could charge more than the equivalent cost of refuelling at a local petrol station and noted that was the complainant's experience. In those circumstances, we considered consumers were in effect being charged a fuel surcharge. Where the fee levied was more than the cost of refuelling locally we considered the "fuel policy" should have explained how, in those circumstances, the fee would be calculated. Because the price claim did not make immediately clear that it excluded fuel and did not explain how the fee levied in the circumstances experienced by the complainant would be calculated, we concluded 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),  3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication.  and  3.19 3.19 If a tax, duty, fee or charge cannot be calculated in advance, for example, because it depends on the consumer's circumstances, the marketing communication must make clear that it is excluded from the advertised price and state how it is calculated.  (Prices).

Action

The ad must no longer appear. We told Enjoy Car Hire to make clear their quoted prices excluded fuel and to explain how a local fuel charge would be calculated.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.17     3.18     3.19     3.3    


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