Ad description
A website selling dresses, www.missydress.co.uk, featured text on its home page that stated "MISSYDRESS.CO.UK ... Hot:long dress,prom dresses uk,maxi evening [sic] ... Sign Up To Apply Your £5 Coupon Code Now ...". At the top of the page was a drop down bar which allowed consumers to select their preferred currency from a list that began with British Pound Sterling. At the bottom of the page further text stated "Delivery Methods" and showed various logos of courier services, including Royal Mail. On the "Contact Us" page, text stated "Billing Address: DEPT 906, 196 HIGH ROAD, WOOD GREEN, LONDON, this address is only billing address [sic]". On the "About Us" page was text that stated "MissyDress.co.uk is a HongKong,China based retailer offering variety of chic dresses [sic] ...".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the website was misleading, because it gave the impression that the advertiser was based in the UK when they understood they were based in China.
Response
www.missydress.co.uk Inc (www.missydress.co.uk) did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by the lack of response from www.missydress.co.uk Inc (www.missydress.co.uk) and their apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonably delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and we told them to do so in future.
We noted on the "About Us" page that it stated "MissyDress.co.uk is a HongKong [sic],China [sic] based retailer". However, the home page content included references to the "UK" by stating the advertiser's website address "MISSYDRESS.CO.UK" and "Hot: long dress,prom dresses uk [sic]". We also noted that a coupon offer was being made, where the discount was marketed in British Pound Sterling and stated "Sign Up To Apply Your £5 Coupon Code Now [sic]". Furthermore, at the top of the home page, consumers could opt to choose British Pound Sterling when searching for an item and at the bottom of the page, it listed the advertiser's various "delivery methods" and showed the Royal Mail logo. We also noted on the "Contact Us" page that the advertiser's billing address was based in the UK and that only on the "About us" page was it disclosed that the advertiser was based in Hong Kong.
Therefore, we considered that the website implied that the advertiser was based in the UK and concluded that it 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.
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
and
3.4.5
3.4.5
the arrangements for payment, delivery, performance or complaint handling, if those differ from the arrangements that consumers are likely to reasonably expect
(Misleading Advertising) and 9.1 (Distance Selling).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told www.missydress.co.uk Inc that their advertising must not misleadingly imply that they were based in the UK and to make sufficiently clear the geographical address from which they operated.
