Ad description
A website, www.tyreleader.co.uk, offered "Dunlop SP Sport MAXX 255/35 ZR20 97Y" tyres for sale.
Issue
The complainant, who ordered the ZR20 tyres but was sent R20 tyres, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
CP Reifen Trading GmbH t/a Tyreleader did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Tyreleader's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) 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 respond promptly to our enquiries and we told them to do so in future.
The complainant stated that Tyreleader had said that the R20 and ZR20 tyres were the same and that they would therefore not take the R20 tyres back or exchange them for a set of ZR20 tyres. We understood, however, that the tyres were different. We noted that Tyreleader advertised R20 tyres as well as ZR20 tyres on their website, and understood that the R20 tyres were generally cheaper than the ZR20 tyres purchased by the complainant. We were concerned that it appeared the complainant had been supplied a different product of lesser value than the product they had purchased.
We had not seen evidence to show that Tyreleader were able to supply the ZR20 tyres as indicated in the ad. For that reason, we considered the claims on the ZR20 product page had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading and breached the Code.
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 3.30 3.30 Marketers must not use the technique of switch selling, in which their sales staff decline to show the advertised product, refuse to take orders for it or to deliver it within a reasonable time or demonstrate a defective sample of it to promote a different product. (Availability).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told CP Reifen Trading GmbH t/a Tyreleader not to advertise Dunlop SP Sport MAXX 255/35 ZR20 97Y tyres if they were not able to supply the product. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
