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Breakthrough for companies mislead by Construct Data
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) has recently written to companies who lodged complaints concerning a misleading mailing from a European directory company, Construct Data Verlag AG. The ASAI have advised the complainants that the company involved have agreed not to pursue payments from those misled by the advertising involved. These complaints had been forwarded to the Austrian self-regulatory authority, Österreichischer Werberat (OWR), under an agreed cross-border complaints procedure for self-regulatory authorities in Europe.
Background: Over the past year, hundreds of complaints about a Construct Data Verlag AG “Fair Guide” entry have been sent to OWR under the EASA Cross-Border Complaints System: The advertiser offered, for a fee, to place subscribers company information in a business directory and invited the consumer to verify the company details already printed on the form, and then to sign the response. By returning the signed form with approval of the company details, it automatically placed an order. Complainants were consequently being pursued for payment.
Following legal action by the OWR and the Austrian Association for Protection against Unfair Competition (Schutzverband), Construct Data agreed before a court of law on 13/02/07 to immediately refrain from sending misleading communications (“fair guide” entries) and from insisting on any payment claims within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland in so far as any person had been misled and therefore placed their signature in error.
It has been agreed that upon receipt of a letter confirming that the complainant had been mislead, Construct Data and its debt collector Premium Recovery will cease sending reminders for payment. They have not however undertaken to send an official cancellation letter. It is important therefore that if a company feels that they have been mislead by Construct Data, they write to Construct Data. A copy of the cancellation letter can be obtained from the ASAI website.
Companies who feel that they have been mislead by a Construct Data “Fair Guide” mailing should immediately write to them in the matter. A standard letter is available on the ASAI website, www.asai.ie.
If you think you have been mislead by Construct Data:
Please click here to read more information on the proceedings
Please click here to download the cancellation letter
Notes to editors
About ASAI:
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is the self-regulatory body set up by the advertising industry to promote the highest standards of commercial advertising and to enforce the Code of Standards for Advertising, Promotional and Direct Marketing, full details of which are available on ASAI’s website – www.asai.ie.
Case Reports on adjudications of the independent Complaints Committee of the ASAI are released in periodic Complaints Bulletins during the year and are also posted on the ASAI website.
About EASA and the cross-border complaints system.:
The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels and is the single voice of the advertising industry in Europe on advertising self-regulation. It acts as the European coordination point for advertising self-regulatory bodies and systems across Europe. EASA brings together 27 SROs (24 from 22 European countries as well as SROs in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) and 14 organisations representing the European advertising industry (advertisers, agencies and the media). Visit www.easa-alliance.org for further information.
Since its founding in 1992, the EASA has operated a system dealing with complaints about cross-border advertising. It is designed to provide a complainant with the same redress available to consumers in the country of origin of the media in which the advertisement appears.
There are two basic principles of the Cross-Border system. The first is 'country of origin', a concept enshrined in EU law to facilitate the growth of the Single Market. In the case of the Cross-Border Complaints system, an advertisement must comply with the rules of the country where the media is based (or in the case of direct mail advertising, the country where the advertiser is based). The second principle is 'mutual recognition', meaning that EASA Members agree to accept advertisements which comply with the self-regulatory rules in the country of origin of the media, even if those rules are not identical to their own.