Advertisment
The sponsored advertisement for Myvehicle.ie on a third-party website, with a link to the advertisers’ own website referred to the following:
“Free VRT AND Nox Calculator – VRT & NOx Calculator Ireland. Use this tool to calculate vehicle registration tax (VRT) on a {sic} Irish or UK registered car. A 13 – step process reduced to just one, calculate your VRT & Nox…”
Complaint
The complainant said that on viewing the sponsored advertisement on the third-party website and clicking through to the advertisers’ own website, there was no way of availing of the ‘free’ service advertised without paying €7.50. They, therefore, considered the advertising to be misleading.
Response
The advertisers said they did in fact provide each user who entered a vehicle registration number on their website at the following link
https://www.myvehicle.ie/report/free, 35 pieces of information for free.
They said the free data service had been offered to the public for over 5 years and they confirmed that this was the first complaint they had received concerning how the service was advertised. They considered that the vast majority of the general public who had used this service clearly understood the format.
The advertisers reiterated that the term “Free” was only intended to refer to the initial use of the Vehicle Registration Mark (VRM) lookup on the homepage of their website. They said that the €7.50 cost applied to the more detailed VRT report that included comprehensive information and additional services.
They said that users of their website were clearly informed about the nature of the service provided, including any associated costs for accessing the detailed report, and they made it a priority to ensure that the pricing was transparent and visible before any financial commitment was required.
To address the complainant’s concern, the advertisers said they were reviewing the advertising in question to ensure that the wording was more precise and that it could not be interpreted as misleading.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee noted that the advertisement in this case had specifically referred to a free VRT and NOx calculator and the link provided had brought a user directly to the VRT and NOx calculator webpage, where it stated that there was a charge of €7.50 to use the calculator.
While the Committee noted that the webpage had stated what the cost would be, as the advertisement had claimed that the service advertised was ‘free’, the Committee concluded that the advertisement was misleading and in breach of Code Sections, 4.1, 4.4, 4.9, 4.10 and 5.22.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form.
The Committee noted the advertisers undertaking to review their advertising and advised care in the future.
