Ad description
A product listing on Amazon for StopWatt, a smart home energy monitoring brand, seen in May 2026, featured the product title “Electricity Saving Device, Plug-in Energy Saver for Home & Office, Outlet Play Power Augmenter, Reduce Electricity Waste (2 Pack)”.
In the “About this item” section, text included “Saves Electricity & Reduces Energy Bills: Optimizes [sic] power usage to minimize [sic] energy waste, helping you lower monthly electricity costs”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims that the product could save electricity, reduce electricity waste and lower energy bills were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Esaverwatt.com t/a StopWatt did not respond to the ASA's enquiries
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Esaverwatt.com t/a StopWatt’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 respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We considered consumers would understand the claims “Electricity Saving Device, Plug-in Energy Saver […] Outlet Play Power Augmenter, Reduce Electricity Waste” and “Saves Electricity & Reduces Energy Bills: Optimizes [sic] power usage to minimize [sic] energy waste, helping you lower monthly electricity costs” to mean that plugging the StopWatt device into an electrical outlet would reduce the amount of electricity wasted or consumed, thereby resulting in lower electricity bills.
StopWatt provided no evidence that their product could save electricity, reduce electricity waste and lower energy bills. We understood that it was highly unlikely that a plug-in energy-saving device of this type, which did not switch appliances off, limit their running time, or otherwise directly control the amount of electricity they consumed, would meaningfully reduce the amount of electricity used by household appliances or result in meaningful savings on consumers’ electricity bills. We therefore concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Esaverwatt.com t/a StopWatt not to mislead consumers by exaggerating the effectiveness of the product. Specifically, we told StopWatt not to repeat claims that the product could save electricity, reduce electricity waste or lower energy bills. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
