Advertisment
The advertisement was a sponsored post on Facebook. It read: –
“Buy the Samsung Galaxy S24 on eir for just €99 and get a Chromebook Go worth €329 on us. #eirforall”
Beneath the text there was a picture of a Chromebook with text beside it that read: –
“Chromebook Go worth €329 on us. When you buy the Samsung Galaxy S24 for just €99.”
Below the picture there was a call-to-action which invited a potential customer to “Get Offer”
Complaint
The complainant believed the advertisement was misleading as one had to enter into a contract with eir to avail of the offer and that this was not stated in the advertisement.
Response
The advertisers said that they believed the complained about advertisement was in line with the ‘advertising code’ and was not misleading as a consumer could click through to the clear and correct details of the offer. They said that this was common practice in their industry and provided pictures of two advertisements of a competitor they believed illustrated this point.
The advertisers accepted that the concerns of the complainant could be used to improve communications on their social channels. They said they were in the process of reviewing all current advertisements to ensure they link more clearly, and ‘prior to the first click’, to contract lengths.
Conclusion
Upheld:
The Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Council noted that a customer had to click the advertisement to become aware that they had to enter into a contract to avail of the offer. The Council considered that since it was possible to purchase phones without a SIM, it was therefore reasonable for a consumer to consider that entering a contract was not necessary to avail of the offer based on the contents of the advertisement. They concluded that since it was not possible for a consumer to simply ‘buy’ a Samsung Galaxy S24 for €99 without entering into a contract, the advertisement was therefore misleading.
The Council concluded that the advertisement was in breach of Code sections 4.1; 4.4; 4.9; and 4.10 of the Code.
Action Required:
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form without making reference that to avail of the offer one must enter into a contract.
