Ad description
A post on a Facebook page for a claims management company, EMC Advisory Services, featured text that stated “What Is Wrong With Package Bank Accounts? 1 in 5 are estimated to have been mis-sold ...”.
Issue
Lloyds Banking Group challenged whether the claim “What Is Wrong With Package Bank Accounts? 1 in 5 are estimated to have been mis-sold” was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
EMC Advisory Services Ltd stated that the claim was based on information taken from a report published by YouGov UK in 2013 and that it was statistically relevant to package bank accounts sold before 2014 (as outlined in the survey). Furthermore, they stated that YouGov UK was recognised both in the industry and by the government as a credible source of information.
EMC Advisory Services provided a link to YouGov’s website, which stated “One in five UK consumers with packaged bank accounts were potentially mis-sold them, new research from YouGov SixthSense suggests. The ‘Packaged Bank Accounts’ report shows that around a fifth (22%) of account holders say they have encountered sales practices or subsequent problems that indicate the accounts they bought were not right for them”. It also linked to information about how YouGov had conducted their research. EMC Advisory Services stated that the YouGov report provided the most up-to-date research regarding the packaged bank accounts market, including the one in five statistic. Furthermore, they believed that the report had not been publically challenged by any of the banks or discredited, and until a further report was published or any further evidence was provided to the contrary, the statistic could still be relied upon.
EMC Advisory Services stated that the one in five statistic was further quoted in a report on packaged bank accounts on the BBC’s Watchdog series and Twitter account. Furthermore, it was quoted in a national newspaper, which stated “Concern has grown that as many as one in five of these customers may have been mis-sold the account”.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that the statistic “1 in 5 are estimated to have been mis-sold” packaged bank accounts was based on YouGov UK’s second report on the packaged bank accounts market. This, we acknowledged from EMC Advisory Services response, was quoted by a national newspaper and the BBC’s Watchdog television series. We considered that the claim would be understood as indicating that a significant proportion of packaged accounts had been found to have been mis-sold and that there was evidence that such practices were used in up to one in five cases.
We noted from the YouGov website that in 2013 they had commissioned a survey among its online panel, drawing on a sample of 2,005 UK adults who owned a packaged bank account. These individuals were asked specific questions covering various topics, such as “How well consumers understand and know about the features of their packaged account” and “Mis-selling experiences encountered by accountholders and their reaction towards them”.
However, it was not clear that these questions would lead directly to a conclusion as clear as that stated in the ad. The advertiser had not provided us with details of the research, which we considered would be necessary to show that its methodology and conclusion supported the “1 in 5” statistic referred to in the ad. We also noted that the survey was conducted in 2013 and that the advertiser had not provided evidence that took into account the number of packaged bank accounts that had been sold since then.
Therefore, we considered that EMC Advisory Services had not provided sufficient evidence to substantiate the statistic and concluded that the claim was misleading.
The claim breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading Advertising) and 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).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told EMC Advisory Services Ltd to ensure they held sufficiently robust evidence when making statistical claims.
