Ad description
A website for Available Car Ltd, www.availablecar.com, seen on 12 August 2015, contained listings for used cars. Text next to each car stated “when new £xxxxx”, “you save £xxxx” and the current price of the car.
Issue
A complainant challenged whether the savings claims were misleading because they were based on the price of the car when it was new.
Response
Available Car Ltd said the "when new" price was the price paid for the car when it was originally bought new, including any extras fitted to the car when purchased, and not the price today for the equivalent model. They said they had previously received trading standards advice to describe the higher price as a "when new" price and believed the inference was that the car was now no longer new.
Available Car Ltd said the "You save" figure was the difference between the "when new" price and their selling price. They believed it was important to draw consumers' attention to the difference in price because of the significant depreciation in the price of cars after they were sold when new. They said the listings also showed the year of registration and the mileage of the car.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the CAP Code required that ads made the basis of a price comparison clear. In this case, the "when new" and "you save" headings and figures appeared immediately below the photograph of the car, while text alongside stated the make and model of the car followed by the year of registration and mileage, and also the colour, fuel, whether the car was manual or automatic and the current selling price. We acknowledged that the specifications of a used car were likely to be very different from those of a brand new car in terms of mileage, wear and tear and warranty. However, we considered the information was presented sufficiently clearly for readers to understand the basis of the price comparison and to understand that the "you save" figure referred to the difference between the price of the car when originally new and the current market value of a used car. Because we considered the basis of the price comparison was sufficiently clear, we concluded that the savings claims were unlikely to mislead.
We investigated the ad under 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),
3.10
3.10
Qualifications must be presented clearly.
CAP has published a Help Note on Claims that Require Qualification.
(Qualification),
3.17
3.17
Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication.
(Prices) and
3.39
3.39
Marketing communications that include a price comparison must make the basis of the comparison clear.
CAP has published a Help Note on Retailers' Price Comparisons and a Help Note on Lowest Price Claims and Price Promises.
(Price comparisons) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
