Background
On 7 April 2025, the Advertising Codes were updated to reflect the revocation and restatement of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (“CPRs” – the legislation from which the majority of the CAP and BCAP rules on misleading advertising derived) by the Unfair Commercial Practices provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (“DMCCA”). On that date, the wording of a number of the rules in the Advertising Codes was changed to reflect relevant changes introduced by the DMCCA on 6 April 2025. Given the ASA’s assessment of the ad that formed the subject of this ruling was carried out before 7 April 2025 the ASA considered the ad under the wording of the rules that existed prior to 7 April 2025, and the Ruling (and references to rules within it) should therefore be read in line with this wording, available here – CAP Code and BCAP Code.
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on ads making compostable claims, identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by the ASA. See also related rulings published on 30 April.
Ad description
A paid-for search ad for Dualit coffee bags, seen on 16 August 2024, stated “Dualit Coffee Bags - Compostable Coffee Bags”. Further text below stated “Discover Dualit's compostable coffee bags - café-quality ground coffee in a bag”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the claim “compostable coffee bags” was misleading.
Response
Dualit Ltd said their coffee bags had been certified as industrially compostable and were made from polylactic acid (PLA), a material derived from sugars extracted from plants and ground coffee. They said consumers would interpret the claim “Compostable Coffee Bags” to mean the bags were made from a compostable material and would not assume they were home compostable. They said products had to be tested and proved to compost in order to make the claim. Their coffee bags were not home compostable and they were not claiming they would breakdown in a domestic compost, as the testing criteria for domestic composting was fundamentally different to industrial composting. Paid-for search ads were constrained by space, so they provided further information on their website about how to dispose of the product correctly.
Assessment
Upheld
CAP guidance stated that if the disposal process referred to in an ad was likely to differ from the average consumer's expectation of what that process entailed, that may be considered material information. The claim was, therefore, likely to need qualification – for example, by making clear where and how, the product should be disposed of. It referred to where compostable products are only suitable for industrial composting, such as when effective degradation would not occur in home composting, as an example of information that may be material to a consumer's transactional decision. Claims which do not clearly and prominently include that information were less likely to comply. The ASA assessed the ad in question against the CAP Code.
We considered consumers would understand from the claim “Dualit Coffee Bags - Compostable Coffee Bags”, in the context of a consumer product for use in the home, that the coffee bags were compostable and that they could be composted at home.
We understood the coffee bags had been certified to the European Standard EN13432. A product certified to meet that standard was designed to breakdown within an industrial compost. It would therefore not necessarily breakdown within a domestic compost, as the composts differed in composition –, for example in temperature. Also, a product may take longer to breakdown fully in a domestic compost, if at all, and toxic matter may remain. We further understood that compostable plastics should not be placed within plastic recycling collections as they could contaminate plastic recycling streams. Additionally, not all local Councils were able to place industrially compostable plastics, such as when collected with food or garden waste, within an industrial compost and some Councils recommended compostable plastics be placed in a waste bin.
The claim “Compostable Coffee Bags” implied the bags, which would typically be used within the home, could be composted in a home composter, but as this was not the case, we considered it was likely to mislead. We considered, within the context of an ad that referred to an industrially compostable product as “compostable”, making clear their intended disposal location, such that it was clear they were not home compostable, and where consumers could find further information about how they could access the intended location, was material information that should have been made clear in the search ad, notwithstanding any space limitations. In any event, we considered the ad was not limited by time or space to such an extent that the information could not be provided. The ad had a character limit of 270 and Dualit had used 132. There was, therefore, sufficient space within the ad format to correctly inform about the nature of the product and how it should be disposed.
The webpage the ad immediately linked through to, which listed the various coffee bags available, did not contain further information about how to dispose of the coffee bags properly. We acknowledged that the individual coffee bag product listing pages on Dualit’s website, which the ad did not immediately link through to, stated “industrially compostable; pop the used Coffee Bag into your food waste bin and let your authorised council collection scheme do the rest”. However, we considered it was unclear from the claim “industrially compostable” what action, if any, consumers needed to take. Additionally, the reference to placing the bags in food collection bins required further information, as some Councils recommended against putting compostable plastics in food collection bins. Moreover, that information would only be seen by consumers who scrolled down the full length of the page, and consumers could proceed without seeing this further information to purchase the coffee bags.
The ad suggested the bags could be composted in a location that they were not designed for. Also, it did not make clear how consumers should dispose of the product correctly in order to have the claimed effect, which we considered was material information that should have been included in the ad. We concluded the ad was therefore likely to mislead.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 11.1, and 11.2 (Environmental claims).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form investigated. We told Dualit Ltd to ensure their search ads did not mislead over the correct route for disposal when making composting claims or omit material information about the disposal of compostable products.
