Background
This investigation forms part of a wider piece of work related to online ads in the rail industry concerning "lowest" or "cheapest" price claims. See also related rulings published on 24th December 2025.
Ad description
The website homepage for MyTrainTicket, mytrainticket.co.uk, seen on 28 August 2025, featured a journey planning tool with a button that stated “GET CHEAPEST TICKETS”.
Further down the homepage, it stated “Thank you for visiting our new “improved” MyTrainTicket.co.uk […] Our service now features a “best fare finder” facility which together with our other service benefits allows you to find the cheapest available train ticket prices for ticket types for your preferred rail journey, route and times across the national rail network and we’re completely impartial”. Below the claim, a “National Rail accredited” logo was featured.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims “GET CHEAPEST TICKETS” and “find the cheapest available train ticket prices” were misleading.
Response
My Train Ticket Ltd t/a mytrainticket.co.uk accepted that they could not provide robust, verifiable evidence to substantiate their “cheapest” train ticket claims. Following the complaint, they would take action to remove the claims from their website. They confirmed that they were working on alternative wording that accurately reflected their service without making unsubstantiated price claims. They said strengthened internal checks would be applied to ensure future ads were not misleading.Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claims “GET CHEAPEST TICKETS” and “find the cheapest available train ticket prices” to mean that by using MyTrainTicket’s journey planner, they would be able to purchase the lowest available price for their chosen journey. We considered that those were “lowest price” (or “best price”) claims. As such, they had to be backed up by suitable evidence to show that advertisers would always beat, and not merely match, competitors’ prices. Mytrainticket.co.uk acknowledged they could not provide that evidence.
We welcomed the advertiser’s response that they would take action to amend the website. However, because we had seen no evidence to demonstrate that consumers could obtain the lowest available price, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told My Train Ticket Ltd t/a mytrainticket.co.uk to ensure that they did not mislead consumers by claiming they could offer the lowest price available if that was not the case.
