Ad description
A listing for an "Eye of the Angel" silver and cubic zirconia pendant necklace from J Rosee Jewellery, seen on www.amazon.co.uk on 22 November 2017, stated "Price: £129.87 [crossed out]. Sale: £17.87. You Save: £112.00 (86%)".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the savings claim was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Shenzhenshi Mangeershizhuangyouxiangongsi Ltd t/a J Rosee Fine Jewellery did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by J Rosee’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 provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We considered that consumers would understand the claim "You Save: £112.00 (86%)" to represent a genuine saving against the advertiser’s usual selling price for the product at the time the ad appeared. We noted that the pricing history from various price tracking websites provided by the complainant indicated that the product had not been on sale for more than £25 within the past 12 months. Because we had not been provided with any evidence that £127.87 was J Rosee’s usual selling price for the item, we concluded that the savings claim had not been substantiated and was therefore 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. (Misleading advertising), 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) and 3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication. (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Shenzhenshi Mangeershizhuangyouxiangongsi Ltd t/a J Rosee Fine Jewellery to ensure they held evidence to substantiate their savings claims.
