Ad description
The website www.mountainwarehouse.com, seen on 16 February 2017, showed photographs of ski anoraks and ski boots. Large text in a box situated prominently on the screen stated "UP TO 50% OFF EVERYTHING! LIMITED TIME ONLY!"
Issue
The complainant, who found that some products had no discount at all, challenged whether the claim "UP TO 50% OFF EVERYTHING!" was misleading.
Response
Mountain Warehouse Ltd said a small number of products on their website at the time of the promotion did not have a discount. They had assumed that the use of the term "up to" was sufficient to address that, but on reflection agreed that the offer could have been better worded and undertook not to use similar "off everything" claims unless every product had a reduction.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered consumers would interpret the claim "UP TO 50% OFF EVERYTHING" to mean that all items had a reduction off their usual selling price, with a significant proportion reduced by 50%.
We welcomed Mountain Warehouse's undertaking not to use similar "off everything" claims in future unless every product had a reduction. However, because not all products had a reduction off their usual selling price at the time of the ad, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Mountain Warehouse Ltd not to use similar "off everything" claims unless every product had a reduction.
