Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A product brochure for InnoGreen, a heat pump manufacturer, seen on 4 October 2018 featured the claim "InnoGreen GeoPro is the only Thermal Fluid on the market that has been designed specifically for closed loop ground and water collectors. Its design & development was completed in response to requests by leading industry colleagues looking for a solution to the disadvantages of standard glycol based thermal fluids currently in use". A table in the brochure stated that the fluid had a freezing point of -32 degrees Celsius at a dilution of 50% v/v.
Issue
Kilfrost Ltd challenged whether:
1. the claim InnoGreen GeoPro is the only Thermal Fluid on the market that has been designed specifically for closed loop ground and water collectors” was misleading and could be substantiated;
2. the claim that Geo Pro’s “design & development was completed in response to requests by leading industry colleagues looking for a solution to the disadvantages of standard glycol based thermal fluids currently in use” was misleading and could be substantiated; and
3. the table in the brochure misleadingly exaggerated the performance of GeoPro by claiming that it had a freezing point of -32 degree Celsius at a dilution of 50% v/v.
Response
1. InnoGreen Chem said that GeoPro was a product unique to the market that had been created specifically for closed loop and ground water collectors in response to industry requests and regulatory demands. They said that because they believed the product was free of certain additives – including triazoles – it was the only one of its kind available, whereas Kilfrost GEO contained those additives and so was not available in some markets as a result.
2. InnoGreen Chem did not comment on this point.
3. InnoGreen Chem said they did not believe Kilfrost’s testing of GeoPro’s freezing point had been independent and unbiased. They said that different methodologies would have given different results and that the methodology they used to arrive at the -32 degrees Celsius figure was not the same as that used by Kilfrost.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA considered that traders were likely to understand the claim “"InnoGreen GeoPro is the only Thermal Fluid on the market that has been designed specifically for closed loop ground and water collectors” to mean that GeoPro was unique and that no other thermal fluid on the market had been designed for that specific purpose.
We noted InnoGreen’s comments about the lack of additives such as triazoles in GeoPro, but we had not seen any evidence of that, or in relation to the composition of competitor products. We had also not seen an explanation of how such a lack of additives would amount to their product being the only one that was designed specifically for closed loop ground and water collectors. We therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.
On that point, the ad 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) 3.33 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
2. Upheld
We considered that traders would understand from the claim about GeoPro’s design and development that InnoGreen had received requests from leading individuals within their industry to provide a solution to the disadvantages of using standard glycol-based thermal fluids currently available, and that GeoPro addressed those disadvantages. However, we had not seen any evidence to suggest that industry figures had requested the development of such a product.
We therefore concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
On that point, the ad 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).
3. Upheld
We considered that traders would understand from the table that GeoPro had a freezing point of -32 degrees Celsius when used at a dilution of 50% v/v and that this was important to prevent the fluid from freezing when used in cold conditions. However, we had not seen any evidence to demonstrate that was the case, and we therefore concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
On that point, the ad 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 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told InnoGreen Chem to ensure that they held evidence to substantiate claims about their products and to ensure that future marketing communications did not exaggerate the performance of their products.
