Ad description
A paid-for Facebook post for AliExpress Shopping App, seen on 12 May 2025, featured the text “Unbelievable Deal Alert! Get 3 amazing products for just £0.99! Don’t miss out on these unbeatable prices – shop now and save big!”. The post featured a carousel of images, which included an image of a white pair of trainers, with the text “NIKE 2025 Men’s NIKE AIR WINFLO 11 Running Sneaker…”. A yellow box above the image included text which stated, “£0.30 ON 1ST ORDER”.
Issue
The complainant, who was unable to purchase the trainers at the advertised price, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Ltd t/a AliExpress stated that the “£0.30 ON 1ST ORDER” promotion related to a “bundle deal” aimed at new customers. They explained that, due to an IT error, a Nike shoe had mistakenly been included in the ad when it was not part of the offer. They confirmed the product had been removed from the promotional page upon becoming aware of the issue.
They said they had reviewed all online advertising to ensure only eligible products were featured and had upgraded their IT system to prevent future mistakes. They said they had also enhanced their pre-launch review procedures to ensure future advertisements complied with transparency standards.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the ad that all the products shown, including the Nike trainers, were included in the “Unbelievable Deal” promotion. In particular, we considered that the combination of the claim “Get 3 amazing products for just £0.99!” and the image of the trainers with the text “£0.30 ON 1ST ORDER” would lead consumers to believe the trainers were available at the stated price as part of the offer.
However, we understood that this was not the case, and that the trainers had been included in the ad following a technical error. We acknowledged that AliExpress had removed the item from the ad once they became aware of the error and had taken steps to prevent similar issues in future.
Because the trainers were not available at the price stated as part of the promotion, we concluded the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.17 (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Ltd t/a AliExpress to ensure that future ads did not mislead by, for example, only showing items included as part of a promotion.
