Ad description
The website www.incomesupportguide.co.uk for an income support phone line stated "INCOME SUPPORT PHONE NUMBER ... 0843 xxx xxxx". The website included a contact address of a Government Health and Safety Executive office. Small print at the foot of the page stated "INCOMESUPPORTGUIDE.CO.UK IS A DIRECTORY SERVICE ONLY. CALLS COST 5P PER MINUTE FROM A BT LANDLINE, CALLS FROM MOBILES AND OTHER NETWORKS MAY COST MORE".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because it implied the advertiser was an official government body providing Income Support, rather than a directory service.
Response
Meridian Consumer Research Pvt Ltd t/a Income Support Guide (Income Support Guide) did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Income Support Guide's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (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 the website included the text "INCOMESUPPORTGUIDE.CO.UK IS A DIRECTORY SERVICE ONLY." However, this appeared in small print only at the bottom of each web page and was therefore not given sufficient prominence in relation to the headline text "Income Support Guide" and additional references to income support, including in the URL. The website also included information such as "Eligibility conditions", "Conditions for non-qualification" and details about how benefits would be paid. We considered that those references along with the wording "Income support" and the use of an address of a government Health and Safety Executive office was likely to lead consumers to understand that the advertiser was connected with the UK government, and that they would be using an official government benefit service. Because we had not seen evidence that that was the case, we concluded that the website was misleading.
The website 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
3.50
3.50
Marketing communications must not display a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation. Marketing communications must not claim that the marketer (or any other entity referred to), the marketing communication or the advertised product has been approved, endorsed or authorised by any public or other body if it has not or without complying with the terms of the approval, endorsement or authorisation.
(Endorsements and testimonials).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Income Support Guide to ensure they did not imply they offered official government income support services in future and we referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
