Advertisment
Website:
The advertisement was a listing on the advertisers’ website for metal shelving. The advertisement included a description of the metal shelving and below that it said ‘Offer only available on Lidl Plus. Save €5’.
Brochure:
A listing in the advertisers’ brochure said in the top left corner
‘14th-20 Nov Offer only available on Lidl Plus’.
Underneath an image of the shelving unit it said
‘Save €5/ 19.99 €14.99/ Lidl Plus’.
POS Material:
In-store advertising for the shelves included the following:
Parkside Metal Shelving
Save €5 Lidl Plus
€19.99 normal price
€14.99 Lidl Plus Price.
Complaint
The complainant objected on the grounds that the advertising was misleading as it was not clear that the promotion was limited to one set of shelves per customer. The complainant said that they purchased four sets of the shelves but only received a €5 discount on one set of shelves and not a €20 discount for the four sets of shelves as expected. As the limitation had not been called out in the advertising, they believed advertising around the promotion was misleading as it had not sufficiently adverted to the limitation that there was a maximum of one discount per transaction.
Response
The advertisers said that the limitation of one discount per customer was clearly stated on the Lidl Plus app listing for the product and that such limitations were standard practice within their industry for promotions. They said that this limitation had the effect of lessening the risk of customers not being able to avail of purchase of a promoted product and meant that they were in compliance with the ASA code regarding availability of stock/ anticipation of demand.
The advertisers said they would add to their instore signage for their non-food items that were on promotion that there was a limitation of ‘one per customer’ where applicable. They provided an example of what this would look like and said they would also review the signage for their food items.
Conclusion
Upheld:
The Independent Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Council noted that the advertising complained about appeared in-store, online (website) and in a weekly brochure. In this case, the Council noted that the product listings on both the website and in the brochure had not stated within the listing that the offer was limited to one unit per customer, nor had it been stated on in-store promotional material. The Council noted the Code requirement that any terms or conditions likely to affect a consumer’s decision whether or not to participate, should be clearly and prominently stated so as to be clear to the consumer before any commitment is made. In this case, while the Council noted that the limitation had been advertised within the product details on the Lidl Plus app, they considered that the limitation of the offer of one discount per customer, was a term that was likely to affect a consumer’s decision and therefore, should have been clearly and prominently stated on all advertising. As the term had not been clearly and prominently stated in the point of sale, website or brochure, the Council considered the advertising was in breach of Sections 4.1, 4.4, and 5.16 of the Code.
Action Required:
The advertising must not appear in its current form again.
The Council welcomed the amendment by the advertisers to point of sale material to include a notification of limitations to their instore promotional material.
