Ad description
A website, www.ibatterys.co.uk, selling laptop batteries, was seen 10 May 2018. It featured the UK flag and the Royal Mail logo. The returns page listed an address in Berkshire, UK.
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the advertisers were based overseas, challenged whether the website misleadingly implied ibatterys.co.uk was based in the UK.
Response
Cross Ocean Electronic Co Ltd t/a ibatterys.co.uk did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Cross Ocean Electronic Co Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
Upheld
The website domain name included “.co.uk”. It prominently featured the Royal Mail logo and included an image of the UK flag. Prices were listed in pounds sterling and the returns page listed an address in Berkshire. The shipping page stated “Items will be shipped by Royal Mail…whether you are from England or from other countries, all of the orderes [sic] will be processed with fast delivery”. The ASA considered that consumers would understand that the advertiser was based in the UK. However, we noted that Cross Ocean Electronic Co Ltd was registered in Hong Kong, and the complainant had been told that their order would be shipped from abroad. We concluded that the ad misleadingly implied that the advertiser was based in the UK and therefore 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.
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.
and
3.4.2
3.4.2
the identity (for example, a trading name) and geographical address of the marketer and any other trader on whose behalf the marketer is acting
(Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Cross Ocean Electronic Co Ltd t/a ibatterys.co.uk not to imply that they were based in the UK and to make sufficiently clear the geographical address from which they operated. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
