Ad description
A website for West Yorkshire Windows, www.westyorkshirewindows.co.uk, seen on 21 August 2018, included a number of reviews under its Reviews tab.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the testimonials were genuine.
Response
West Yorkshire Windows said that the testimonials were from their Trustpilot page. They provided information from Trustpilot that verified the identity of the reviewers, along with the time that each review was posted and the purchase that the customer had made before leaving the review. West Yorkshire Windows also provided a copy of an invoice for one of the reviews which showed that the purchase that had been made could be matched directly to the review that had been posted to Trustpilot.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would expect the reviews featured on the website to be the genuine views of customers who had purchased their products. The complainant was concerned that because several reviews featured similar wording they may not be from genuine customers. However, we considered that the evidence West Yorkshire Windows provided demonstrated that the reviews were genuine, because it included the times that the reviews were posted, the products purchased, contact details for the reviewers and an invoice to match one of the reviews signed by the customer. We concluded that the ad was not misleading.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 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 3.45 3.45 Marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in a marketing communication is genuine, unless it is obviously fictitious, and hold contact details for the person who, or organisation that, gives it. (Endorsements and testimonials), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary
