Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Four pages on the BBC and Ticketmaster websites, and an email from Ticketmaster:
a. A page on the Ticketmaster website, www.ticketmaster.co.uk, seen in February 2023, stated “THE CORONATION CONCERT”.
Text further down the page stated “The 10,000 tickets are not being allocated on a first-come first-served basis, so there is as much chance of being selected if an application is made on the 10th February 2023 as on the 28th February 2023”.
Under a sub-heading entitled “Ballot Rules”, the ad stated “Successful applicants will be notified by late April 2023. At that time successful applicants will be asked to accept their tickets. Please check to see if your application has been successful; and check your spam and junk mail folders. Unsuccessful applicants will not be notified”.
Further text stated “If successful applicants do not accept their tickets within two weeks (14 days) of receiving their ballot winner email their tickets will be forfeited and re-allocated through the Ballot”.
b. A page on the BBC website, www.bbc.co.uk, seen in April 2023, stated “Ticket ballot for the Coronation Concert”.
Text further down the page stated “The 10,000 tickets were not allocated on a first-come first-served basis, so there was as much chance of being selected if an application was made on the 10th February 2023 as on the 28th February 2023”.
Further text stated “If you have been successful in the ballot, you will be notified by late April, when more event information will be sent directly to you”.
c. A frequently asked questions page on the BBC website, seen in February 2023, stated “How can I get a ticket? There are 5,000 pairs of free Coronation concert tickets available through an online ballot. Each successful applicant in the ballot will be able to nominate a guest, giving a total of 10,000 tickets”.
Further text stated “Ballot applications will be accepted from 07:00 hrs GMT on 10th February 2023 until 23:59 hrs GMT on 28th February 2023. Tickets will not be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. There is as much chance of your name being drawn if the application is made on 10th February as by the closing time on 28th February”.
Under a sub-heading “If I am successful in the ballot, what will happen?” the ad stated “If your name is drawn in the ballot you will be notified by email by mid April. You will then be asked to claim your tickets and confirm your attendance at the concert. You will have two weeks (14 days) in which to claim your ticket and you will be sent reminders by email during this period”.
d. A page on the BBC website entitled “Ballot Rules”, seen in February 2023, stated “Applications can be made from 07:00 hrs GMT on 10 February 2023 until 23:59 hrs GMT on 28 February 2023. Applications received after 28 February 2023 will not be considered”.
Further text stated “After the closing date, tickets will be randomly drawn in a way that fairly reflects population spread across the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man, and BFPO”.
Text underneath stated “Tickets are not being allocated on a first-come first-served basis. There is as much chance of being selected if the application is made on 10 February as by the closing time on 28 February. Applications do not guarantee that you will receive a ticket through the ballot process”.
A further paragraph stated “Successful applicants will be notified by late April 2023. At that time successful applicants will be asked to accept their tickets”.
e. An email from Ticketmaster, received 25 April 2023, had the subject line “The Coronation Concert – Congratulations”. Text underneath stated “Congratulations, you have been successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets to The Coronation Concert, At Windsor Castle on Sunday 7 May 2023. Tickets in this supplementary round are being offered to a randomly selected group of ballot winners on a first come first served basis, so you will need to act quickly in claiming your tickets to ensure you secure them”.
Text underneath stated “7 May 2023 Windsor Castle”. To the right was a blue box with the words “Claim tickets” in it.
Text underneath stated “HOW TO CLAIM YOUR TICKETS NOW. You will have until 12:00 on 27th April […] If you do not claim your tickets by this date then they will be re-allocated”.
Issue
The ASA received 98 complaints from members of the public who were unable to claim tickets for the event:
1. 94 complainants challenged whether the claims “The Coronation Concert – Congratulations”, “Congratulations, you have been successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets to The Coronation Concert” and “HOW TO CLAIM YOUR TICKETS NOW. You will have until 12:00 on 27th April” in ad (e) were misleading; and
2. 56 complainants challenged whether the claims in ads (a) – (d) that the tickets would not be allocated on a first-come first-served basis were misleading.
Response
1. & 2. BBC Studios Productions Ltd t/a BBC Studios said that they were responsible for organising the Coronation Concert on 7 May 2023 and had contracted Ticketmaster UK Ltd t/a Ticketmaster to administer the ballot for the event. They responded on behalf of both parties.
BBC Studios said that members of the public were invited to enter a ballot for one of 5,000 pairs of tickets for the Coronation Concert between 10 and 28 February 2023. They explained that on 13 March, 5,000 successful entries were drawn at random and that those individuals were contacted and asked to accept the pair of tickets within 14 days. Two follow up reminders were sent to individuals who had not responded.
They said following this there were unclaimed tickets for the Coronation Concert and that on 3 April 2023, a second ballot was drawn for these unclaimed tickets. They explained that follow up reminders were sent to those who had not responded and that any unclaimed tickets not accepted were forfeited.
They explained that following the first two ballots, there were still tickets that remained unallocated. They said that in-line with the provision in the ballot rules “BBC Studios retain a discretionary right to alter, amend or change the Ballot Rules”, they decided to offer the remaining tickets to a third group. They said that due to the short timeframe before the event, tickets would be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and that Ticketmaster emailed further entrants on 25 April to claim the remaining tickets. They said that the email was sent by Ticketmaster on behalf of BBC Studios with wording provided by BBC Studios.
BBC Studios accepted the email was not well-worded, since it congratulated the recipient twice, before explaining that tickets in this supplementary round were being offered on a first-come first-served basis. They said that an apology was issued on the BBC Complaints website about the email, and that they apologised to those who contacted BBC Studios directly.
They said that the first two stages of the balloting process were followed and that individuals who responded within 14 days received their tickets. They said that the rules and processes were followed as per ads (a) – (d) and so did not consider those ads to be misleading. However, because there were still unclaimed tickets after the first two rounds and due to time constraints, they made the decision to offer the remaining tickets on a first-come first-served basis and acknowledged that ad (e) was poorly worded.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The subject line of the email in ad (e) stated “The Coronation Concert – Congratulations” and the first line stated “Congratulations, you have been successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets to The Coronation Concert”. We considered that recipients of the email would understand from those claims that they had been allocated two tickets for the Coronation Concert. Further claims in the ad added to that impression, including a blue box that contained text which stated “Claim tickets” and “You will have until 12:00 on 27th April to claim your tickets. If you do not claim your tickets by this date they will be re-allocated”.
However, we understood that the entrants who received the email had not in fact been successful in securing tickets, but had instead been selected to enter a supplementary round with an additional chance to get tickets on a first-come first-served basis.
We noted that the second paragraph of the email stated “Tickets in this supplementary round are being offered to a randomly selected group of ballot winners on a first come first served basis, so you will need to act quickly to ensure you secure them”. Whilst this paragraph sought to clarify that there was now an additional round for entrants who had been unsuccessful in the earlier ballot, we considered that it was not sufficient to override the overall impression created by the subject line and text elsewhere in the email. We therefore concluded that ad (e) was misleading.
On that point, ad (e) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising).
2. Upheld
Ads (a), (c) and (d) all stated that tickets for the Coronation Concert would not be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and ad (b) stated “The 10,000 tickets were not allocated on a first-come first-served basis”. We considered that consumers would understand from those claims that if they entered the ballot, they would expect that winners would be informed and be able to claim their tickets, and not have to follow a first-come first-served process where they might be unsuccessful in securing tickets.
We acknowledged that there were time constraints to ensure that all tickets were allocated before the Coronation Concert and that not all applicants who had been contacted originally had claimed their tickets. We also acknowledged that the rules of the ballot, as outlined in ads (a), (c) and (d) had been followed in the first two rounds of balloting and that entrants who had been contacted during the first two rounds and had responded had received tickets to the Coronation Concert.
However, because there were unclaimed tickets after the first two rounds of balloting, and BBC Studios decided to offer the remaining tickets on a first-come first-served basis for this supplementary round we therefore concluded ads (a) – (d) were misleading.
On that point, ads (a), (b), (c) and (d) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
We told BBC Studios Productions Ltd t/a BBC Studios and Ticketmaster UK Ltd to ensure that future marketing communications did not misleadingly imply that consumers had been allocated tickets if that was not the case. We also told them to ensure that future marketing communications did not omit relevant material information that tickets would be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.
