Ad description
A webpage on the SnackVerse website, www.snackverse.com, a snack subscription box, seen on 8 December 2025, was titled “PREVIOUS BOXES”. It included information about previous snack boxes that had been sent each month from “DECEMBER 25” back to “MARCH 24”. For each month there was a country listed, an image of a box with a selection of snacks and details about what snacks were included in the box.
Issue
The complainant, who had not received the themed snack boxes from the countries as described, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
SnackVerse Ltd said the webpage was retrospective and functioned as a historical showcase of themed boxes from past months, using representative imagery and descriptions of snack selections. They provided three supplier invoices, as representative examples, which they said showed they had bought stock for the themed countries advertised and that the themes were genuine rather than illustrative. They said the webpage did not state or guarantee that every subscriber would receive every listed country regardless of payment timing or subscription status.
They explained their allocation process, saying they ordered stock for each themed month based on anticipated active subscribers. They said subscribers whose payments were successfully processed by the stated deadline were allocated that month’s themed box. Where payment was made after the allocation deadline, they said fulfilment was made from remaining stock and, if the themed stock had already been allocated, a substitute country box would be dispatched. They said substitutions were curated to ensure variety and value, and that the complainant’s experience related to payment timing rather than any misrepresentation.
They said that whilst subscription payments were scheduled between the 4th and 12th of each month, individual subscribers had a specific billing date within that range. The billing window referred to when payment attempts were initiated, not a period in which payment guaranteed allocation of that month’s featured box. Allocation was tied to successful payment on each subscriber’s scheduled billing date: if a payment attempt failed on that date, the reserved allocation could be released and reallocated, and if payment was later confirmed on a retry within the billing window, the featured theme might no longer be available and an alternative country box would be supplied. SnackVerse said it could not confirm the complainant’s exact payment attempt and retry sequence within the complaint process, but maintained that allocation depended on the timing of successful payment at the scheduled billing point.
They said that their allocation method reflected the operational requirements of a subscription service involving internationally sourced products and defined fulfilment timelines. Allocation was linked to confirmed payments at the relevant billing point to enable efficient packing and dispatch.
They provided copies of information during the subscription journey, including dashboard notices and reminder emails stating that payment needed to be made by the deadline, that allocation depended on confirmed payment, and that late payment might result in substitution.
They believed the average consumer of a subscription service would understand that fulfilment depended on confirmed payment by a deadline, that allocation was time-sensitive, and that limited-edition themes could be subject to availability. They said an average consumer would not interpret a retrospective showcase page as creating an unconditional entitlement that overrode payment terms.
They also said a disclaimer previously shown on the “PREVIOUS BOXES” page had been removed because it could imply general stock insufficiency, which they said did not reflect the service. They said the themed boxes displayed were genuinely supplied to subscribers who met the payment requirements, and that the issue in this case was late payment rather than a lack of stock.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand that, for each month shown, subscribers would have received a box containing the featured snacks from the country listed.
We considered that the supplier invoices showed that SnackVerse had ordered stock from three out of the twelve listed countries that matched the monthly country themes shown on the “PREVIOUS BOXES” webpage. In addition, we understood that during 2025, the complainant had not received any boxes as described on the “PREVIOUS BOXES” webpage. We also understood that when consumers signed up to the subscription, they paid for that month’s box at the point of sign-up, and that subsequent payments were taken on a recurring basis on or around the 4th of each month. We further understood from the complainant that payments for their subscription were successfully taken each month on the first attempt. We noted SnackVerse’s allocation process required payment to be successfully taken on the first attempt on each subscriber’s specific billing date to guarantee allocation of that month’s country themed box. If they defaulted on their payment, even if they subsequently made payment within the billing window, they were not guaranteed that month’s country themed snack box. Notwithstanding that the complainant had not defaulted on any payments, we considered that SnackVerse operated a subscription service with scheduled billing dates within a defined billing window which they determined. In that context, we considered that consumers would expect SnackVerse to be able to plan stock levels to meet demand from subscribers who paid on their usual billing date within the billing window. We also considered that consumers would be unlikely to expect that, despite paying around the same date each month within the billing window determined by SnackVerse, they would not be guaranteed to receive that month’s country themed box.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear in its current form. We told SnackVerse Ltd to ensure their ads did not imply their subscribers had received a specific country-themed box for a given month if that was subject to allocation conditions.
