Ferry firm rapped for misleading ‘from £39’ fare promotion

The Advertising Standards Authority found in favour of the complainant, stating it considered consumers would understand from the ad that there would be a "significant proportion" of fares available at £39 for the advertised travel window and would be "spread evenly across the travel period".

"The ad made no reference to the £39 fare being restricted to Mondays and Tuesdays and consumers would therefore have expected the £39 fare to have also been available on other days of the week," said the ASA. "We therefore expected any evidence substantiating the price claim would include all days of the week.

"However, we understood that while all sailings on a Monday and Tuesday during the travel period were £39, none were available at £39 on the other days of the week.

"We considered that because the £39 fare was only available on Mondays and Tuesdays, and that had not been made clear in the ad, the ‘from £39’ claim was likely to mislead."

DFDS has been told not to run the ad again in its current form, and to make clear in future where "from" pricing refers only to certain days of the week.