Advertising regulators have rapped UK supermarket group Asda over an advert comparing product prices with rival Morrisons.
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The national press and TV ads, which claimed 2,955 branded products at Asda were cheaper than at its competitor’s stores, led to Morrisons filing a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) claiming the adverts were “misleading”.
Morrisons said the website quoted as a source for its prices did not actually carry them and that it was not clear from the ads whether the 5,880 products selected for comparison represented a “fair selection” of the two retailers’ stocked products.
The ASA found that the ads, which claimed the prices had been checked independently by sources including mysupermarket.co.uk, did not comply with case law from the European Court of Justice. The authority said they did not set out how consumers or competitors could check the information for themselves.
It ruled that future advertising must set out how consumers and competitors can verify the products and prices for themselves, for example by including a link to a website or a postal address.
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By GlobalDataThe ASA concluded that the ads were not misleading on two further points and found the comparison to be based on a “fair selection of products”.
A spokesperson for Asda told just-food: “The ASA ruling was more of a technicality and we have been able to rectify that now. Consumers can now access all Morrisons’ prices.”
The retailer said it has since changed the wording for ads where it compares prices with Morrisons by stating that customers can contact Asda head office for a list of products.
“This wording will remain as long as Morrisons fail to offer home shopping which would allow customers to check prices themselves,” the spokesperson said.
