Ad description
Claims on the website, www.kitchenideasscotland.co.uk, stated "KITCHEN IDEAS SCOTLAND ... If you're on the hunt for great Kitchen Ideas in Scotland then you're in the right place".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims "KITCHEN IDEAS SCOTLAND" and "If you're on the hunt for great Kitchen Ideas in Scotland then you're in the right place" misleadingly implied that the company were based in Scotland, which he understood was not the case.
Response
Kitchenideasscotland.co.uk (KIS) stated that they did operate in Scotland and had designers with kitchen ideas that were based and lived in Scotland. They highlighted that B&Q were based in Southampton but that fact did not prevent them from operating in Scotland. They also highlighted that only one person had complained, that he was obviously aware of the fact KIS were not based in Scotland, and therefore he had not been misled.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted the fact that although not based in Scotland, KIS had designers that were based and lived in Scotland. We noted, however, that they had not provided any information regarding those designers, their relationship with KIS and how many clients they had worked with. In addition, we noted that KIS had not provided any information regarding where they were based. We considered that most consumers visiting www.kitchenideasscotland.co.uk and reading the claims "KITCHEN IDEAS SCOTLAND" and "If you're on the hunt for great Kitchen Ideas in Scotland then you're in the right place", would believe that the company was based in Scotland. In addition, we considered that a number of consumers might decide to make further enquiries from the company and purchase a kitchen from them because they understood that the company was based in Scotland. We therefore concluded that the claims were misleading and in breach of 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.
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
3.4 and
3.4.2
3.4.2
the identity (for example, a trading name) and geographical address of the marketer and any other trader on whose behalf the marketer is acting
(Misleading advertising).
Action
The claims must not appear again in their current form. We told KIS to ensure they did not misleadingly imply that their company was based in a specific area if that was not the case.
