Ad description

Claims on teletextholidays.co.uk for a holiday from FlightandHotel.co.uk for two adults stated "Aparthotel Geranios Suites and Spa Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. 7 nights All Inclusive departing 29th August 2012. £361pp. Price correct as at 13:05 11/08/2012 ... Call now! FlightandHotel.co.uk 0844 XXX XXXX ..."

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the price claim was misleading and could be substantiated because, having attempted to purchase the holiday by calling the 0844 number listed, they were told that the holiday was not available at the advertised price and were offered the holiday at a higher price.

Response

The Freedom Travel Group Ltd (FTG) explained that they were a travel agent and were therefore subject to adjustments in prices from suppliers with no notice. They said their main suppliers were low-cost carriers who changed their prices regularly throughout the day subject to sales and search levels. They said they strove to keep their prices as up-to-date as possible but, as an agent, they had to wait until their system detected a price change and then reflect this in their advertising.

FTG provided a trading log for the date in question from their web management company who managed all their offers. They said the log showed that the holiday was available at the advertised price of £361 per person all morning on the date in question and that the price was increased at 1pm due to an increase in the flight price. They explained the increase would have been reflected in the next live update to the Teletext live XML Feed which would have been within two hours following the increase, which they believed was reasonable. They explained that when the complainant contacted them by telephone, they advised her of the increase and immediately withdrew the ad from Teletext until the new price could be reflected. They did not believe the complainant had been misled or had suffered any real detriment.

FTG explained that Teletext carried out daily random checks of prices on their website and would also phone in to check availability on offers which were live on their system as if they were a customer.

Teletext explained they were an advertising medium through which holiday companies loaded their holiday offers. They were not involved at any point in the booking stage as customers called the advertisers directly. They said they did not have access to any systems or information required to investigate the issues raised by the complainant.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the advertised price was not identified as a "from" price and therefore consumers would have expected the offer to be available at the advertised price. We understood from the log provided that on 11 August the holiday was available at the advertised price until approximately 1pm at which point it was increased to £628. At the time the complainant saw the ad, which was approximately 1.05pm, the price had been increased although this had not yet been reflected in the price quoted in the ad, as the next Teletext live feed was within two hours of the increase.

We considered that at the time the complainant saw the ad, the holiday was not available at the advertised price. We also noted that the ad did not explain that the advertised fare was extremely limited or could be withdrawn at any time, in order to make clear to consumers their prospects of being able to take up the offer.

We concluded that because the ad did not make clear that the advertised fare was extremely limited or could be withdrawn at any time, and because the evidence provided showed that the advertised price was not available at the time the complainant saw the ad, the price claim had not been substantiated and the ad was therefore 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.  and  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.
 (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),  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) 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 FTG to ensure that in future they make clear where offers are extremely limited or that they could be withdrawn at any time.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.17     3.28     3.3     3.7    


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