Ad description
A product listing for a Canon Powershot SX620 camera, seen on www.argos.co.uk in January 2018, stated "£179.99". Further text stated "Plus free 16GB SD Card & Case".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the same camera was offered for sale on its own for £159.99 on the Argos website at the same time, challenged whether the claim "Plus free 16GB SD Card & Case" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Argos Ltd stated that the camera had first been sold on its own at a price point of £249.99. In the subsequent catalogue, the camera was offered in a bundle with additional free items at £199.99. At the same time, the single camera was removed from the core range and not printed in that catalogue. It was instead put into clearance to sell through remaining stock, and continued to reduce in price until the stock was sold out. The bundle continued to be sold in the main range at £179.99. Argos said that this was consistent with the current value of the camera as sold in the market.
Argos stated that once lines went into clearance they were dealt with by a central clearance team who aggressively slashed prices to lower than market rate to clear stock that was no longer in the core range. They understood how the single unit being at a very low bargain clearance price as part of this process could have been confusing for customers seeing the bundle product stating that the extras were free. The camera on its own was no longer on sale.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that marketers must not describe an element of a package as "free" if that element was included in the package price, unless consumers were likely to regard it as an additional benefit because it had recently been added to the package without increasing its price. The ad stated “£179.99” and “Plus free 16GB SD Card & Case”. We considered that consumers would understand this to mean that the camera had been available to purchase on its own for £179.99 and that the other items were provided at no additional charge.
At the time the ad was seen, the camera on its own had been available for sale at £159.99 in the clearance section of the Argos website. The bundle including the camera, SD card and case had been available in the main range for £179.99. While we noted Argos’ assertion that £179.99 was reflective of the price of the single camera on the wider market, we had not seen any evidence that the item was available to purchase from Argos at that price at the time the ad was seen. Overall, we considered that consumers were likely to understand that the package price had been inflated to include the price of the SD card and case. We considered that it was misleading to describe those elements of the bundle as “free” and concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached 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), 3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication. (Prices) and 3.25 3.25 Marketers must not describe an element of a package as "free" if that element is included in the package price unless consumers are likely to regard it as an additional benefit because it has recently been added to the package without increasing its price. (Free).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Argos Ltd not to describe an element of a package as “free” if that element was included in the package price unless consumers were likely to regard it as an additional benefit because it had recently been added to package without increasing its price.
