Ad description
A website for Cash4MyGold, www.cash4mygold.co.uk, featured a "Cash For Gold Calculator". It stated "What is your gold worth?" and allowed customers to enter the weight and carat of their gold to be given a price figure. Text underneath the calculator stated "Never knowingly undersold on what we pay per gram for gold GUARANTEED". Under the header "What Are Your Current Gold Prices?" various prices were listed for different carats of gold. Text underneath stated "*The gold price changes daily and so does the price we pay. We always keep inline with the market price so if the gold goes up we pay more!".
Issue
The complainant, who was offered a lower sum for her gold than stated by the online calculator, challenged whether the "Cash For Gold Calculator" and listed prices for gold were misleading.
Response
Gemgain Ltd t/a Cash4MyGold (Cash4MyGold) said the price given by the gold calculator might reflect the price offered to purchase a customer's gold, depending on a number of criteria. They said it was an indication of the value at the time, and would not necessarily be the same as any offer they made.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers were likely to understand that the figure given by the gold calculator was an approximate one, and may not tally exactly with the price offered for their gold. However, we also considered they would expect the figure given by the calculator, and the listed prices for gold, to be close to the amount offered to most consumers sending in that carat of gold. As we had not been provided with any evidence this was the case, we concluded the gold calculator and listed prices for gold were misleading.
The ad 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
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Cash4MyGold not to state or imply that listed or calculated gold prices were close to the amount offered to most consumers, unless they could demonstrate this was the case.
