Ad description
A claim on the website www.landlordaction.co.uk, which promoted services for landlords with problem tenants, stated "Paul Shamplina - Founder. Paul has worked within in [sic] the legal system since 1997 - specialising in landlord/tenant disputes. As a certified bailiff, he has acted on behalf of landlords with bad tenants, and has enormous expertise in the process and in court proceedings".
Issue
The complainant, who worked in the property industry, challenged whether the claim that Paul Shamplina was a certified bailiff was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Landlord Action Ltd (Landlord Action) responded to the ASA by phone. They stated that Paul Shamplina had been certified as a bailiff in the past, and pointed out that the ad did not explicitly claim that he still was. They said they realised nevertheless that the ad might be misleading, but declined to make any changes or provide a written response.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged that the ad did not explicitly state that Paul Shamplina was currently a certified bailiff. However, we considered that the claim "As a certified bailiff ...", when used to describe the founder of a company offering debt recovery services, was ambiguous and likely to be misinterpreted by consumers to have that meaning. Because we understood that Paul Shamplina was no longer a certified bailiff, and because we considered that the ad did not make that clear, we concluded that the claim was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
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.
(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).
Action
The claim must not appear again in its current form. We told Landlord Action to ensure that their marketing claims were not misleading.
