Agency rapped for 'misleading' free holiday prize promotion

The complaint was upheld, with the ASA ruling all marketing communications and/or material referring to promotions "must communicate all applicable significant conditions or information where the omission was likely to mislead".

These conditions, said the ASA, should include at least a "reasonable estimate" of the number and nature of the available prizes. In addition, the ASA noted the advert didn’t contain any information after the runners-up prizes, which it said was "material" to the promotion given it was "likely to influence" consumers’ decisions about and understanding of the promotion.

The UK’s CAP code, the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, states promoters must not falsely claim or imply the consumer has already won, would win, or would win on doing a particular act, "if the consumer incurred a cost to claim the prize".

"Although the website did not refer to runners-up prizes, we understood that was how they were described to entrants when they were telephoned," said the ASA in its judgment. "Because there was a cost involved in claiming that prize, we concluded that the promotion also breached the code on that basis."

The ASA determined the promotion must not run again "in the form complained of". "We told Easy Consulting SL to ensure their future promotions included all significant conditions, including information about the number and nature of prizes. We also told them not to falsely claim that consumers had won a prize if they were required to incur a cost to claim the prize."