Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Not upheld.
Ad description
Three national press ads and pages on the website www.oaktreemobility.co.uk for stairlifts:
a. Text in the first national press ad stated "Your Special Offer from Oak Tree Stairlifts! Unbeatable Lifetime Warranty!" The ad featured a logo of the Union Jack in the shape of Great Britain with text next to the logo stated "Handmade in the UK".
b. Text in the second national press ad stated "SPECIALOFFER!! On all our High Quality Stairlifts". The ad featured a logo of the Union Jack with text next to the logo stated "Handmade in Great Britain".
c. Text in the third national press ad stated "Oak Tree Stairlifts ... Your comfort is our strength ... 10% OFF! All Our High Quality Stairlifts". The ad featured a logo of the Union Jack with text below stating "Buy British".
d. Text on the website stated "The Jasmine Collection ... The Jasmine curved track system is tailored to your individual staircase, ensuring the best fit possible. With its unique twin tube steel rail system, stability in this product is absolutely assured ... Hand made in the UK". A logo of the Union Jack flag was featured at the bottom right of the page with the text "HAND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN ... READ MORE" displayed below the image.
e. Text on the website page titled 'British Made' stated "BRITISH MADE ... Value and excellent build quality, combined with superior service levels make us a stand out company for Stairlifts, especially if you believe in buying 'British’. Our stairlifts are assembled here in Great Britain by experienced engineers ...".
Issue
1. Acorn Mobility Services Ltd and two members of the public challenged whether the claims "British made", "Buy British" and other similar claims implying that the stairlifts were manufactured in the UK were misleading and could be substantiated.
2. Acorn Mobility Services Ltd also challenged whether the claim "handmade" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
1. & 2. Oak Tree Mobility provided confirmation from their manufacturer, which was based in the UK. They stated that the stairlifts that they offered were manufactured and assembled at the manufacturer's factories in the UK, with some sub-assembly components sourced from other suppliers.
They said that the majority of other UK based stairlift companies manufactured their carriages and drive units in the Far East and imported them into the UK for sale. Oak Tree Mobility's manufacturer stated that their experience showed that this method led to issues with reliability as there was a lack of control of the manufacturing facilities due to the distances involved, resulting in products of questionable quality. They further stated that given their products were manufactured and assembled at their factory in the UK, they were able to ensure the quality and reliability of the products because of their manufacturing controls.
Oak Tree Mobility stated the manufacturing process involved two production lines, one for straight stairlifts and the other for curved stairlifts. They also provided a number of photographs of the process demonstrating that numerous engineers were involved at many different stages. They stated that the engineers working the process considered the stairlifts to be handmade by themselves and that the machinery used were regarded as tools in that process, rather like a carpenter making a chair by hand and using a drill as a tool. They did not regard the stairlifts to be machine made on assembly lines.
Oak Tree Mobility stated that there were numerous stages within the manufacturing process of their stairlifts, such as CAD (computer-aided design) rail design, steel cutting and bending, rail fabrication, rail testing, rail painting, carriage assembly, rail cutting, testing and packing. They said that all require varying levels of skills and that all engineers were trained and monitored to ensure the quality of their work.
Assessment
1. Not Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claims "British Made" and "Buy British" to mean that the stairlifts were constructed and assembled in Britain by British companies. We noted from the evidence provided by Oak Tree Mobility that the Crosshill and Bristol models that they offered were produced by a manufacturer based in the UK. We noted that these models, including the components, were fabricated and assembled by that UK based manufacturer, with some sub-assembly components sourced from elsewhere.
Although the sub-components were sourced from other suppliers, given that the main components of the stairlifts were manufactured in the UK and that the main stages of the production process, such as design, fabrication and assembly, also took place in the UK, we considered the claims "Buy British" and "British Made" had been substantiated and concluded that the claims were not misleading.
On this point, the claim was investigated under 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.
(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) and was not found to be in breach.
2. Not Upheld
We considered that consumers were unlikely to interpret the claim "handmade", within the context of the ads, to mean that the stairlifts were manufactured and constructed without the use of any machinery or electric tools. We considered that consumers, upon viewing the claim, would understand that mechanical tools and machinery would be used given that the product was mostly comprised of metal and electronics. However, we considered that consumers would expect a significant proportion of the production process to have relied on the manual skills and control of the engineers and workmen.
We noted the different stages in the process of manufacturing the stairlifts offered by Oak Tree Mobility and the advertiser's comments that each stage required varying levels of skills.
We considered the photographs provided by Oak Tree Mobility, which showed a number of stages during the manufacturing process, such as steel cutting, rail fabrication and carriage assembly. We noted the photographs showed steel pipes being cut using a metal cutting saw, the welding of various metal parts that formed part of the stairlift rail, engineers constructing stairlift rails of different shapes and the seat and the motorised part of the stairlift carriage being assembled with sub-assembly components.
Although we noted that equipment such as welding rods and metal cutting saws were used during the process, we considered the photographs demonstrated that such equipment was used by engineers as tools and that the manner in which the main components were constructed appeared to rely mostly on the manual control and skills of the engineers, particularly in the fabrication of the stairlift rails, and did not involve large scale automated machinery.
We considered that the evidence supplied by Oak Tree Mobility demonstrated that the stages of the manufacturing process were not automated but rather, relied on the skills and control of the engineers to operate the tools which in turn would influence the quality of the product. On this basis and on the basis that Oak Tree Mobility had substantiated the claim considered in Issue 1 that the majority of the components were manufactured in the UK, rather than merely being assembled in the factory, we concluded the claim had been substantiated and was not misleading.
On this point, the claim was investigated under 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.
(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) and was not found to be in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
