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Bulletin: 17/1
Batch: 240
Reference: 26250
Product: Travel/Holidays
Advertiser: Champions Travel
Agency:
Medium: Online - App
ASAI Code 6th Edition: 1.6c, 2.9, 2.22, 2.24
Advertising on Champions-travel.com offered match tickets and hotel accommodation packages. For matches held in the West Ham United stadium, options for City Centre hotels and Stadium Hotels were given.
The complainant said that he accessed the advertising on mobile internet and was given an option to book a hotel at the stadium, which he did. However, on payment for the booking, he received an invoice which stated that the hotel was a 45 minute walk away from the stadium. He said when contacted, the advertisers had stated that the details of the hotel were available on the desktop version of the website, he pointed out that as he had accessed the website through a mobile browser which did not contain this information, this was of no use to him. He considered the presentation of the information to be misleading.
The advertisers initially responded that the complainant had not correctly identified the match attended and requested that the correct game be identified.
The ASAI Executive explained that the issue related to the content of the advertising, that via a mobile device the information displayed led the consumer to believe that the hotel was located at the West Ham United Stadium, which did not appear to be in fact the case.
Although the advertisers made contact by phone they did not provide a response to the complaint.
Complaint upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Complaints Committee considered that to describe the hotel as a Stadium hotel, when in fact it was 45 minutes’ walk from the Stadium, was likely to mislead and was in breach of Sections 2.22 and 2.24 of the Code.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The Complaints Committee considered that the advertising material provided to consumers using mobile internet should be amended.