Misleading Advertising - Cashback

Misleading Advertising - Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Complaint Upheld - Cashback
 

Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd (‘Samsung’) was offering £300 cashback to consumers who purchased specific kitchen products from their advert on an offer page at www.samsung.com. The ASA ruled that the advert was misleading because only two of 84 products in the promotion qualified for cashback of £300 as the other products did not qualify for the advertised amount of cashback.  

Samsung placed an offer page on its webpage at  www.samsung.com, containing a cashback promotion. The offer stated:

 'Love your kitchen. Love Samsung. Up to £300 cashback.' Smaller text said: 'Valid from Feb 01.2017 to Apr 04.2017', plus a link saying: 'See details'.

 

A competitor of Samsung, Domestic appliance company BSH Home Appliance, challenged whether the ad was misleading on the grounds that only only 2 products qualified for the cashback.

 Samsung argued that the promotion was not misleading because:

• The link to the offer page provided a full list of the products and the amount of cashback which could be claimed;
• It was made clear in the offer that only certain products purchased by consumers could claim a cashback of up to £300 from Samsung;
• Rule 3.22 of the CAP Code was not applicable to the offer (which says price claims such as 'up to' and 'from' must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer) as it applied to the 'price' of products not the promotions where consumers claimed a reward from a manufacturer
• The 'prices' as defined in section 3 of the CAP Code specified that the section only applied to the price of the product and not to promotions.

The ASA contended as follows:

• Consumers could interpret the headline claim 'Up to £300 cashback' to mean that a significant number of products included in the promotion would qualify for the cashback amount of £300
• Rule 3.22 of the CAP Code applied equally to promotions from retailers and manufacturers
• Out of 84 products included in the promotion, only two qualified for the cashback amount of £300 the 82 products qualified for cashback amounts of £100 or less
• Two products did not constitute a significant proportion of the products in the promotion despite the 'See details' link which whicvh clicked unto gave a full list of products comprising the promotion;
• The ad was therefore misleading, breaching CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), and 3.22 (Prices).
• The ad must not appear again in its current form. Other complaints upheld

 

---

 

Please visit our website for any advice on Advertising and Promotions or you may contact us by email [email protected]. 

​Contact us. 

​