Ad description
A webpage on the Team RH website teamrhfitness.com, a health and fitness app, seen in April and May 2025, titled “Pricing”, featured pricing information. Text stated, “Pay monthly £7.99” and “Pay once £79.99 (Annual)”. A button stated, “Buy now” under each option, which linked through to a checkout page.
Issue
Four complainants challenged whether the ad made it clear that the subscription was for a minimum term of 12 months.
Response
Team RH Fitness Ltd t/a Team RH believed the pricing and 12-month commitment for their monthly plan were both clearly presented on their website and did not mislead consumers. They explained that customers could not complete the checkout process without ticking a box confirming they had read and accepted the Terms and Conditions, including the 12-month minimum term. A warning message appeared if they tried to proceed without doing so. They said the same process applied to their Annual Plan and that the messaging was clear on both desktop and mobile. They provided a screen recording of the process and screenshots of the messaging.
They noted that a large number of users had purchased the Monthly Plan via this process, with very few complaints. They believed that demonstrated that their ad was not misleading.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claims “Pay monthly £7.99” and “Pay once £79.99 (Annual)” to mean they had the option to pay either £7.99 on a rolling monthly basis, or a one-off annual payment of £79.99. We considered that, in the absence of any further information on the pricing page, consumers were likely to interpret the £7.99 monthly option as something they could cancel at any time.
We understood, however, that the £7.99 price was subject to a minimum commitment of 12 months. We further understood that to download the app, consumers were asked to waive their right to a 14-day cooling off period. Consumers who selected the monthly plan were therefore committed to a minimum total payment of £95.88. We considered that was significant information that consumers needed upfront to make an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with the subscription.
We noted that the pricing page did not make any reference to the 12-month minimum commitment. That information only appeared later in the process on the checkout page, where it was presented in small subtext beneath the payment button. We acknowledged that consumers were required to tick a box confirming they had read and accepted the Terms and Conditions before completing their purchase. However, we considered that the existence of a minimum term was significant and should have been clearly stated on the pricing page itself, rather than after clicking through to the checkout.
Because the ad did not make clear that the minimum period for the subscription was 12 months, we considered that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Qualification), and 3.17 (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Team RH Fitness Ltd t/a Team RH to ensure that they did not mislead consumers by omitting to mention that the subscription was for a minimum period of 12 months.
