Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Claims on a product page on www.karendresssstore.co.uk stated "DESCRIPTION Welcome to visit [sic] Karen Millen Floral Dresses DQ223, karen millen outlet are the factory store, hence we can provide the lowest price on internet. Karen Millen Floral Dresses is one of the most popular style [sic] in our website. Nobody can provide lower price than us in the same quality. As a professional and mature supplier, we can accept total refund if you find any quality problem". Claims on the "Shipping & Returns" page stated "Returns or exchanges are permitted, provided the customer purchased the product through website and it is within 30 days of the receiving date. Please contact us if you need to return or exchange".
Issue
A customer challenged whether:
1. the claims "Karen Millen Floral Dresses" and "karen millen outlet are the factory store" misleading implied that the dresses were genuine Karen Millen garments, which was not the case; and
2. the claims "… we can accept total refund if you find any quality problem", "Returns or exchanges are permitted" and "Please contact us if you need to return or exchange" were misleading and could be substantiated, because she was told by the advertiser that they did not accept returns.
Response
KarendressUk.co.uk did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
1. & 2. Upheld
The ASA was concerned by karendressuk's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted we had seen no evidence to verify that the dresses were genuine Karen Millen garments, nor that the advertiser accepted returns. For that reason, we considered that the claims "Karen Millen Floral Dresses", "karen millen outlet are the factory store", "we can accept total refund if you find any quality problem", "Returns or exchanges are permitted" and "Please contact us if you need to return or exchange" had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading and breached the Code.
The claims 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), 3.41 3.41 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer about who manufactures the product. and 3.43 3.43 Marketing communications must not take unfair advantage of the reputation of a competitor's trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing mark or of the designation of origin of a competing product. (Imitation and denigration) and 9.5.2 (Distance selling).
Action
The advertising must not appear again in its current form. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
