Ad description
A sponsored link on Google, accessed in March 2011, stated "21 Inch Extendable Baton. Great Selection & Prices on Batons, We Ship Worldwide to United Kingdom".
Issue
The complainant objected to the ad because, to his knowledge, the sale of extendable batons was illegal in the UK.
Response
Code09 did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Code09'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 told them to do so in future.
We noted that CODE09's website offered telescopic truncheons of various styles and lengths. We also noted that the website stated "We ship these OFFICIAL POLICE Batons worldwide, to the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and within canada (sic)!" We also noted that the website gave approximate costs in GBP as well as USD. We considered that the telescopic expandable police batons offered on the website were targeted towards UK consumers.
We noted that, under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order, the sale and importation of telescopic truncheons and batons was prohibited. Because the website targeted UK consumers and offered weapons that could not be legally imported into the UK, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible because it encouraged UK consumers to break the law by importing these prohibited weapons.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. (Social responsibility) and 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Reasonable delay).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form.
