Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A website for Origin Mattress, www.originmattress.co.uk, seen in August 2024. The website included a banner at the top that included text which stated, “Mega Summer Sale up to 45% off […] ending in […]” followed by a countdown clock showing the days, hours, minutes and seconds left of the sale.
A webpage, titled “SALE”, included links to the “Origin Hybrid Mattress” and the “Origin Hybrid Pro Mattress”. Text under the “Origin Hybrid Mattress” listing stated, “Up to 40% off”, under which the original price of £465 was shown with a line crossed through, followed by the sale price of £279.00. Text at the bottom of the listing for the “Origin Hybrid Pro Mattress” stated, “Up to 45% off – ENDS SOON”, under which the original price of £961.00 was shown with a line crossed through, followed by the sale price of £529.
The product webpage for the “Origin Hybrid Mattress” included text that stated, “Absolute Pressure Relief […] Orthopaedic Back Support […] Designed by orthopedics [sic] and engineered for pain-free sleep – it’s time to kick that backpain for good”. Further text seen on the page stated, “the highest possible comfort and spinal alignment in any mattress” and “Offers more support in the center [sic] third of the mattress where your bodyweight is concentrated for a healthier back. Perfect for back & joint pain relief”.
The product webpage for the “Origin Hybrid Pro Mattress” included the subheading “NEW & IMPROVED Revolutionary HexaGrid Plus for Deep Pressure-Relief”, under which text stated, “Three Times More Support […] Enhanced Pressure Relief […] Our proprietary technology is designed by orthopaedics and engineered for pain-free sleep.” Further text on the page stated, “Ultimate Dynamic Back Support […] Offers more support in the center [sic] third of the mattress where your bodyweight is concentrated for a healthier and stronger back”. Text under the subheading “Supported by Science” stated, “3x Greater Pressure Relief […] 2x Enhanced Back Support […] Designed to offer enhanced support where your bodyweight is concentrated to alleviate back aches”.
Issue
Emma Matratzen GmbH challenged whether the:
- use of the countdown clock misleadingly implied that the sales promotion was time limited, because the same promotion was still available under a new name shortly after the countdown ended;
- reference prices and associated savings claims made for the “Mega Summer Sale” were misleading and could be substantiated; and
- efficacy claims related to the orthopaedic and health properties of Origin’s products were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Origin Sleep UK Ltd did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Origin Sleep UK Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
1. Upheld
The website featured a banner along the top which stated, “Mega Summer Sale up to 45% off […] ending in” along with boxes displaying the days, hours, minutes and seconds left of the sale, which were counting down to zero. We considered consumers would therefore understand that the promotion was ending soon, and once the countdown clock reached zero, the products included in the sale would return to their usual selling price. We considered the phrase “Mega Summer Sale” reinforced the impression that the promotion was time limited.We did not receive any pricing history from Origin Mattress. However, we understood that the day after the “Mega Summer Sale” ended, the website displayed a new sale with a different name, offering the same discounts. Because consumers would expect the products included in the “Mega Summer Sale” to revert to their usual prices after the countdown ended, when in fact another sale started the next day, we considered that the promotion was not actually time limited. We further considered that the countdown clock was likely to pressurise consumers into making a swift transactional decision, including purchasing products, without giving their purchase the due consideration they normally would, because of the misleading implication that the sale would finish at the end of the time period displayed by the countdown clock.
Because the ad implied that the products on sale in a time-limited promotion would revert to their usual price when the countdown ended when that was not the case, and because the countdown clock was likely to pressurise consumers into making a swift transactional decision, we concluded the ad was misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading Advertising), 8.17 and 8.17.4.e (Promotional marketing).
2. Upheld
The ad included listings for the Hybrid Pro Mattress with the struck through price of £961 followed by the advertised sale price of £529, above which text stated, “Up to 45% off – ENDS SOON”, and the Hybrid Mattress, with the struck through price of £465 followed by the advertised sale price of £279, above text which stated, “Up to 40% off”.
We considered that consumers would understand from the struck through prices that the sale prices for both mattresses represented a reduction against the price at which they were usually sold at the time the ad appeared. We also considered that consumers would understand from the claims “Up to 45% off” and “Up to 40% off” that they would be able to achieve a genuine saving of up to 45% and 40% against the usual selling price of the Hybrid Pro and Hybrid mattress, respectively. We further considered that impression was reinforced by the presence of the countdown clock, which as discussed above, consumers would likely interpret to mean that the price of the mattresses would revert to the higher price once the countdown ended.
Because we did not receive any pricing history for the products from Origin Mattress, we could not determine whether the referenced higher prices were the usual selling prices. However, we noted several reference and promotional prices for both mattresses seen in screenshots of their product listings over a three-month period, shared by the complainant. We noted that between 17 November 2023 and 31 January 2024 the Hybrid Pro mattress had been consistently advertised as being on sale, with the same reference and sale prices of £961 reduced to £529. During that timeframe, the Hybrid mattress had also consistently been advertised at a reduced rate, with a reference price of £499 and a sale price of £299. Throughout that timeframe, both mattresses were advertised as being available at a 45% and 40% discount as part of a series of concurrent sales (“Black Friday”, “New Year Sale”, Mid-Winter Sale”, Sleep Better Sale”).
Because we had not seen evidence that the savings claims represented a genuine saving against the usual selling prices of the products, we concluded that the savings claims in the ad were misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.17 (Prices).
3. Upheld
We considered that consumers would understand the claims “Absolute Pressure Relief”, “Orthopaedic Back Support”, “Designed by orthopedics [sic] and engineered for pain-free sleep”, “spinal alignment” and “Perfect for back & joint pain relief” to mean that the Origin Hybrid Mattress provided pressure relief to its users, offered medically-proven orthopaedic back support, had been designed by orthopaedically trained individuals, helped maintain a healthy spinal alignment during sleep, and could help people suffering with back and joint pain.
We also considered that consumers would understand the claims “Enhanced Pressure Relief”, “Our proprietary technology is designed by orthopaedics and engineered for pain-free sleep”, “for a healthier and stronger back” and “Designed to offer enhanced support where your bodyweight is concentrated to alleviate back aches” to mean that the Origin Hybrid Pro Mattress offered provably high levels of pressure relief. Also, that it had been designed by orthopaedically trained individuals and could ensure pain-free sleep plus it was capable of helping to improve the health and strength of an individual’s back thus alleviating back pain.
Further claims were made, which we considered were comparative in nature, and likely to be seen by consumers as comparisons against competitors in the market: “Three Times More Support”, “3x Greater Pressure Relief” and “2x Enhanced Back Support”.
We therefore expected to see robust documentary evidence substantiating those various claims, consisting of clinical trials conducted on people. However, as discussed above, we did not receive evidence from Origin Mattress to substantiate any of the claims. In the absence of such evidence, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 3.33 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors), and 12.1 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Origin Sleep UK Ltd to ensure their ads did not mislead as to the closing date/time of promotions, or imply that discount offers were time-limited or would not be repeated if that was not the case. We also told them to ensure that future savings claims did not mislead, and to ensure they substantiated savings claims against the usual selling price of their products. We further told Origin to ensure they did not make claims about the orthopaedic and health properties of their products unless they could be fully substantiated. We referred the matter to CAP’s compliance team.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
3.1 3.7 3.17 3.33 8.17 8.17.4.e 12.1
