Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad by Dancebit, seen in January 2026, stated “I thought this dancing workout will only help me to lose some weight, but it solves way more than that: Increases muscle strength Improves coordination, posture and flexibility Boosts mood and helps relieve any stress. The post included a video of various animated characters dancing and on-screen text that stated, “Start dancing today, and see the difference by the end of February [...] IT’S FREE NOW”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim “IT’S FREE NOW” was misleading because the consumer was required to purchase the app, with the cost being reimbursed after 28 days of use.
Response
Gismart Ltd t/a Dancebit stated they used the claim “IT’S FREE NOW” to reflect a money-back model, where users would pay an initial subscription fee to use the app but could receive a full refund of the first month’s subscription fee if they completed a 28-day workout challenge. That meant the programme could ultimately cost nothing. They stated the upfront charge operated as a “commitment bond” to encourage engagement and that they believed app users were familiar with similar pricing models.
Dancebit stated the “challenge” required users to complete the assigned daily dance workout for 28 consecutive days, and that the 28-day streak had to be achieved within 60 calendar days from purchase. Sessions typically lasted five to 12 minutes, with missing one day resetting the streak. To claim a refund users had to submit two screenshots from the app showing four weeks of completed sessions, marked with green checkmarks. They stated the rules were set out in the terms of use, linked from the landing page before payment.
Dancebit said that as part of the wider consumer journey material information including price, the money-back and auto-renewal conditions, was provided before any payment was taken. Whilst they acknowledged the ad itself did not include the full terms, they argued that the ad medium was limited by space and they had taken steps to provide the information by other means.
Dancebit said while they did not believe the complaint had merit, they had removed the claim “It’s Free Now” and similar claims from its advertising. They planned to use alternative wording in future. They also confirmed they had briefed their marketing team on the CAP Code rules on “free” claims and introduced an internal compliance review process for future ads.
Assessment
Upheld
While the ASA acknowledged some consumers might be familiar with “money-back” pricing models, we understood such models could vary in how they operated and, as such, the average consumer was unlikely to be readily familiar with the specific conditions of each. In any case, we considered that consumers were likely to interpret the claim “IT’S FREE NOW”, which appeared in isolation, as an unconditional claim that they could start using the Dancebit app without having to pay.
We understood that Dancebit users were required to pay an initial subscription fee to access the app and could then request a refund if they completed a challenge according to several conditions. The refund was only available for the first month of a rolling subscription.
We acknowledged Dancebit’s explanation that further information about the offer was provided after clicking on the ad and before payment was taken in the app. However, because users had to pay upfront and could only later be reimbursed, subject to conditions, we considered the claim “IT’S FREE NOW” was nevertheless misleading. Therefore, further information about the conditions of the offer, whether provided within the ad or subsequently, would contradict the absolute claim that use of the app was “FREE NOW”.
Because the ad made an absolute claim that the service was free now, when that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Gismart Ltd t/a Dancebit to ensure that it did not unconditionally state or imply their service was “free” if consumers had to pay upfront and could only obtain reimbursement subsequently and subject to conditions.
