Have you ever seen an online fashion ad that looked too good to be true – from what seemed to be an established UK-based brand – only to end up disappointed when the product wasn’t as advertised or the company proved impossible to contact for a refund? You’re not alone.
We’re raising awareness and issuing a warning about companies that advertise clothes they don't stock and instead ship cheap items from third-party sellers overseas – a practice known as dropshipping.
These companies use tactics, often in social media ads and on their websites, including:
- False money-back guarantees or “free” returns promises
- Brand names with city references such as Milena-London or Bond Bristol, to make them look like trusted British brands
- Closing-down sales, often citing tragic or dramatic reasons
- Misleading claims about product materials (e.g. cashmere or wool)
- Claims that products are handmade
- Featuring AI-generated images of the supposed owner
- Claims that they are independent, long-established businesses
- Fake Trustpilot reviews on their websites
The result is that people often receive substandard products and, in many instances, cannot contact the seller or get refunds. Some businesses give the misleading impression they are UK-based when they are actually overseas, in countries such as China, making it even more difficult for people to return goods or get their money back.
That’s why we’re warning people to be cautious when responding to dropshipping offers. If you are not confident that the business you’re dealing with is legitimate, think twice. Or you could end up at best frustrated and at worst out of pocket.
If you see an ad from a company you've not previously purchased from and it uses any of the approaches listed above, ask yourself:
- Does the price sound too good to be true?
- What do the reviews say on third-party websites like Trustpilot? (Ignore reviews on the companies’ own websites.)
- Can you find the company’s address, and are they UK-based?
Beyond that, other steps you could take include looking up the company on Companies House and checking their Meta account information to see when they registered their page, whether the name has been changed and where it is administered from. If in doubt, pause and think before making a purchase.
Responding to complaints in this area, we recently published several rulings involving dropshipping businesses. And today, following a complaint from the BBC consumer programme Watchdog, we’re publishing the findings of our latest investigation into a misleading dropshipping company, Marble Muse.
We investigated the advertiser’s website which featured various images of models in countryside settings and on the high-street, stating “BRITISH BRAND” alongside a Union Jack icon and the text “FREE UK Shipping”. The site also claimed that the company was “founded in London”. Further down the page, an image showed a woman carrying a Marble Muse handbag in a typically British street. In the Contact Us section, the company’s address was listed as an address in London, UK.
The BBC, prompted by numerous concerns raised by its viewers, contacted us to challenge whether the website misleadingly implied that Marble Muse was based in the UK, as they understood the company was in China. They also challenged whether the website was misleading because it omitted the identity and geographical location of the company.
We found the website was misleading on all counts. The images had a distinctly British aesthetic and text heavily implied the business was based in the UK, specifically London, which is not the case.
We will continue to take action where we identify misleading ads by dropshipping companies, but our rulings are just one piece of the puzzle; the issues at hand go beyond advertising.
Stopping these companies from short-changing people is not always as simple as having the ads taken down. We know that even if the plug is pulled on a dropshipping website, other similar ones quickly pop-up in its place and the ads reappear. Some operators take their websites down once negative reviews catch up with them, only to set up again under a new name.
Other regulators and the platforms on which these ads appear all have a part to play in tackling this issue. We’ve signposted these rulings with our partners and continue to share intelligence so they can help tackle these scams when and where we identify them.
We know how frustrating and costly it can be for people who’ve ordered something to receive a substandard product – particularly when it’s almost impossible to return the product and get a refund. By exercising caution and reporting these ads and websites to us, we can help get the drop on these fraudsters.
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