Ad description

Claims on a solicitor's website, www.lorrells.com, stated "... Our service to you is on a ‘no win no fee basis’ and you will receive 100% of any money that we reclaim on your behalf ...".

Issue

Lloyds Banking Group, who understood that solicitors claimed their fee directly from the redress payment from the lender to the customer, challenged whether the claim "you will receive 100% of the money that we reclaim on your behalf" was misleading and could be substantiated.

Response

Lorrells LLP did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by Lorrells LLP's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code 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.

Because we had not been provided with evidence to show that customers received 100% of any money Lorells LLP reclaimed on their behalf, we considered that the claim had not been substantiated. We therefore 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.  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) 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).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.7     3.1     3.3     3.7    


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