Online supermarket Ocado said it will continue to match Tesco prices, despite being challenged by the retailer over “misleading” pricing.
The retail giant challenged Ocado through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a number of its ads, one of which featuring the heading: “Ocado matches Tesco prices on branded goods from today”, including products such as; Heinz Tomato Ketchup, marmite and Kellogg’s Cornflakes, has also been questioned by Tesco.
The ASA upheld Tesco’s claim and said that Ocado’s methods of obtaining Tesco prices could mean that prices are out of date within a day and told the online retailer not to make the claim again until it had addressed the price-match issue.
However, Ocado today (12 June) responded to Tesco’s claim and said it will “continue to match Tesco prices”.
”The ASA ruling is in response to just two specific adverts from March 2008, when Ocado’s Tesco price match policy was first launched and we used an older system of comparison. It is important to point out that the guarantee has been running on a new and fully reliable system for over a year now – helping countless customers slash their bills during the downturn,” a spokesperson for Ocado said.
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By GlobalData“We’re glad of the opportunity, in fact, to tell shoppers that Ocado is matching more products than ever before and delivering even better value.”
Tesco responded and said it was “pleased” the advertising regulator had agreed with it that “Ocado had misled customers with false price matching claims that they could not substantiate”.
A spokesperson for the retailer said: “When shoppers are trying so hard to save money it’s even more important for them to know where they can get the best value. Ocado still fail to match us on hundreds of products and we believe they should focus on helping their customers spend less rather than trying to pull the wool over their eyes with smart advertising gimmicks.”
In March 2008 Ocado was forced to hit back at an earlier threat by Tesco to complain to the ASA about one of its ad campaigns, saying its larger rival had a reputation for “responding aggressively”.
The threat however, followed a claim by Ocado that it would match Tesco’s prices on “all household brands” in a programme that would see prices cut on 3,500 lines.
