Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all were Upheld.
Ad description
Two directory ads for a plumbing, heating and drainage company published in a local business directory:
a. One ad stated "FAST RESPONSE PLUMBING, HEATING & DRAINAGE ... 30 min response 24/7 ... Family Run Business Est 35 Years NO CALL OUT CHARGE CALL US NOW" and listed various locations and telephone numbers.
b. A second ad stated "FAST RESPONSE PLUMBING, HEATING & DRAINAGE ... 30 MIN RESPONSE 24/7 ...Local Engineers Covering Your Area CALL US NOW... NO CALL OUT CHARGE" and listed various locations and telephone numbers.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims:
1. "Local Engineers Covering Your Area" was misleading, because they understood that the advertiser was based in Southampton;
2. "NO CALL OUT CHARGE" was misleading, because they understood that a fee was charged for the assessment of the problem; and
3. "30 MIN RESPONSE 24/7" could be substantiated.
Response
1st Active Drainage Ltd did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by 1st Active Drainage's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of the CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
1. Upheld
We considered that consumers would infer from the claim "Local Engineers Covering Your Area" that 1st Active Drainage had offices or engineers specifically located in each of the stated locations. Because we had not received any evidence demonstrating that was the case, we concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
On this point ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
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).
2. Upheld
We considered readers would infer from the claim "No call out charge" that they would only pay a charge if repair work was carried out and not for a call out for the advertiser to assess or diagnose a problem. Because we had not received any evidence demonstrating that was the case, we concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
On this point ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
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).
3. Upheld
We considered that the claim "30 min response 24/7" implied that the services offered by the advertiser would always be available and within 30 minutes of the consumer contacting them. Because we had not received any evidence demonstrating that was the case, we concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
On this point ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
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).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told 1st Active Drainage Ltd not to make the claims "Local Engineers Covering Your Area", "No call out charge" and "30 min response 24/7", unless they held evidence to substantiate them. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
