Ad description
A TV ad for landlord insurance, seen 5 September 2011, featured the TV presenter Sarah Beeny. She said, "If you're a landlord, you should have proper landlord insurance. You see, normal home insurance isn't designed for rental properties, which means you could end up spending money putting things right if something goes wrong. So why not give Direct Line a call? Their landlord insurance is designed to cover you and your property and it costs less than you might think, as Direct Line guarantees to beat any quote for the same cover." Large text stated "WE GUARANTEE TO BEAT ANY QUOTE" and smaller on-screen text stated "New customers only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Minimum premiums apply. Cover excludes NI. Qualifying criteria apply".
Issue
One viewer challenged whether the claim "Direct Line guarantee to beat any quote for the same cover" was misleading, because any quotes lower than Direct Line's minimum premium were not included in the comparison.
Response
Direct Line Group Ltd (Direct Line) said the ad made clear that there were restrictions on eligibility by stating "New Customers only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Minimum premiums apply. Cover excludes NI. Qualifying criteria apply". They said the conditions appeared on screen as Sarah Beeny talked about the offer and remained there throughout the ad. They stated that a minimum premium existed because there was a cost of issuing cover, below which it was not economically viable for an insurer to operate. They said that was standard market practice. They said it was highly unlikely that they would be unable to beat a customer's quote, because their pricing was such that only 0.03% of their customers needed to take up the offer. They added that they audited their call centres to ensure that the offer was being applied fairly on the few occasions that it was used.
Clearcast said the ad confirmed the limitations to the offer and stated that any insurance proposition always included exclusions. They understood that the complainant felt the ad was misleading because any claim which was lower than the minimum premium would not be honoured, but said that it was highly unlikely that such a situation would arise in practice, because the minimum premium was standard practice across the insurance marketplace.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the headline claims in the ad were "Direct Line guarantees to beat any quote for the same cover" and "WE GUARANTEE TO BEAT ANY QUOTE" and that consumers would infer from the claims that Direct Line would always offer lower priced premiums than their competitors, subject to the restrictions. We considered that the ad set out the restrictions to the offer sufficiently clearly, but noted that one restriction was "minimum premiums apply". We understood therefore that Direct Line would not offer a premium priced lower than that "minimum premium", even if a consumer was to receive a lower quote elsewhere (on an equivalent policy and subject to the other restrictions). We noted that Direct Line maintained that a minimum premium limit was a standard market practice and that it was therefore unlikely for a competitor to offer a premium that was priced lower than their minimum premium threshold, although we noted we had not seen any evidence in support of that claim.
We considered that, in the context of an absolute claim like "WE GUARANTEE TO BEAT ANY QUOTE", it was contradictory to implement a limit on the lowest premium Direct Line would offer consumers (on an equivalent policy and subject to the other restrictions) and on that basis, concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
3.2
3.2
Advertisements must not mislead consumers 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 consumers need in context to make informed decisions about whether or how to buy a product or service. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead consumers depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the advertisement is constrained by time or space, the measures that the advertiser takes to make that information available to consumers by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.10
3.10
Advertisements must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification).
Action
The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.
