Background
Ad description
A promotional e-mail and claims on the website www.ebuyer.com related to a tablet PC:
a. The e-mail had the subject heading "… Save £120 on Storage Options Scroll Extreme Tablet PC". The product featured in the body of the e-mail and was labelled "SAVE £120 … £179.99".
b. The product page on the website included text that stated ""£178.98 inc. vat". The text "£299.99" was crossed out and further text stated "Save £120.01".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the savings claims in ads (a) and (b) were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Ebuyer (UK) Ltd (Ebuyer) said they were willing to amend their advertising. They said they had misunderstood the advertising rules and had new staff. Ebuyer said the complainant had raised a valid point.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged that Ebuyer were willing to amend their advertising. We noted, however, that we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that the 'was' price of £299.99 was a genuine previous selling price and that the advertised savings of £120 and £120.01 were therefore genuine. In the absence of such evidence, we concluded that the savings claims were misleading.
Ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) and 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).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Ebuyer not to make savings claims in future unless they were in a position to demonstrate that they were based on genuine previous selling prices.
