Ad description
Two emails from Screen With Envy, a furniture and accessories retailer:
a. The first email, dated 27 April 2022, showed photographs of various arrangements of outdoor garden furniture and accessories. Prominent text stated, “Exclusive offer – 20% OFF SITEWIDE on all orders over £200. Use code SWE20”. Smaller text stated, “Now on, use our code SWE20 at checkout to secure 20% off all orders over £200!” A button underneath stated, “Shop 20% off”.
b. The second email, dated 29 April 2022, contained the same information but with the additional text “As a Club Envy favourite, you can enjoy 20% off all orders over £200 for a limited time only – using the code SWE20 at checkout!”
Issue
The complainant, who attempted to place an order using the code, but who was told her order was not eligible, challenged whether the “20% off all orders over £200” offer was misleading.
Response
Screen With Envy Ltd said the complainant’s order was not eligible for the 20% discount because the items were part of a bundle to which a discount had already been applied, and only one discount was available per order. They said that was explained in the terms and conditions section of their website. Screen With Envy acknowledged that a link to the terms and conditions had been omitted from the emails and undertook to ensure one would be included in future.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered consumers were likely to interpret the ads to mean that, when using the code provided, they would receive 20% discount on any order over £200. We considered that impression was reinforced by the wording “SITEWIDE” and “all orders”.
We understood the complainant’s order had not been eligible for the offer because another discount had already been applied to the items she wished to purchase.
We welcomed Screen With Envy’s undertaking to ensure a link to their terms and conditions would be included in any future similar ads. However, even if it had been included in these ads, we considered the overall impression of the ads was that any order over £200 would receive 20% discount as long as the code was used.
CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.9 3.9 Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify. stated “Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify”. Because the ads suggested that any order over £200 was eligible for the offer, but the terms and conditions revealed that this was not the case, we concluded that the ads were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Screen With Envy to ensure their ads made it sufficiently clear if offers were subject to exclusions; that they included significant information about the exclusions and that any claims made about offers did not contradict the terms and conditions that applied to them, for example by using wording such as “SITEWIDE” and “all orders”, when the terms and conditions meant that not all orders would be eligible.
