Ad description
A product listing on Amazon.co.uk, seen on 19 October 2017, promoted a "Xenon HID Conversion Kit Headlight for Car Vehicle Replacement Bulb", sold by JINYJIA.
Issue
The complainant, who understood driving vehicles that had been fitted with xenon HID headlights on a public road would be illegal, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
Shenzhen Jinyuanjia Electronics Technology Co Ltd t/a JINYJIA did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Shenzhen Jinyuanjia Electronics Technology Co Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We understood that there was a risk that by installing such a conversion kit a vehicle would be rendered ‘not road legal’, and could lead to its failing an MOT test. We therefore considered that the ad should have made clear the potential implications of fitting such a device, and because it did not do so, we concluded that it was misleading.
The ad 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 ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Shenzhen Jinyuanjia Electronics Technology Co Ltd not to mislead by omitting material information from their ads in future. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
