Advertisment
The ‘About Us’ section of linenbundle.ie website included the following statement:
“We’re proud to say that Linenbundle is a 100% Irish owned business. We’re an Irish company passionate about making the softest luxury bed linen on the planet!”
Under the Section “Linenbundle V Big Stores” it stated:
“Q: How do we provide high quality bedlinen at such fantastic prices we hear you ask?
A: We cut out the middlemen of course! By selling direct from our factory floor and binning wholesale costs, brand licensing fees, multiple logistics handling charges and high street rent & rates we cut out all the middlemen and pass the savings onto you.’
Complaint
The complainant considered that the advertising was misleading as it gave the impression that the advertisers manufactured their products in Ireland and distributed them from Ireland when in fact the complainant’s order was shipped from the UK via Royal Mail and the products delivered were labelled as being made in Israel. The complainant also noted that there were two versions of the advertisers’ website, linenbundle.ie and linenbundle.com.
Response
The advertisers said that they had not suggested that the bedlinen was made in Ireland in their advertising. They said that they did say their company was Irish, which they were very proud of and that they supported this with a growing team based in Ireland.
The advertisers said that the Royal Mail tracking number would have been received by the complainant as their third-party logistics company shipped from Swadlincote in England and they fulfilled all UK orders with Royal Mail. They said that they had moved their fulfilment of goods to England due to expansion of their business only a few months ago. The advertiser said that they used An Post for all delivery of goods in Ireland and could only suggest that the complainant received a Royal Mail tracking number in error as they had experienced teething issues with their new fulfilment centre. The advertiser subsequently advised that they were moving their fulfilment of Irish orders back to Ireland from January 2021 via An Post.
In regard to their website, the advertisers said that the domain linenbundle.com was for their UK customers whilst linenbundle.ie was for their Irish customers and customers based in Ireland were directed to the linenbundle.ie website.
The advertisers confirmed that their goods were made in Israel and they advised that they would soon be sourcing their product from India as they were moving their production to India. They said that while they did not own their own factory, their partners were exclusively producing bedlinen for them.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Committee noted that while the advertisers were based in Ireland, their products were manufactured outside of Ireland.
The Committee considered that while the advertising had not stated that the products were manufactured in Ireland, the mentions of “100% Irish owned business” and “By selling direct from our factory floor” could lead a consumer to believe the products were manufactured in Ireland. In the circumstances the Committee considered that the advertising was in breach of Sections 4.1 and 4.4 of the ASAI Code.
Action Required:
The advertising must not reappear in its current form.
