The ASA has ruled in favour of the Kingfisher-owned retailer after the Home Retail Group challenged an email advert for a '15% off everything' B&Q voucher.


The advert in question was circulated on June 10, 2011, and said: "Spring into summer with our 15% off everything* voucher." The asterisk then linked to small print at the foot of the email, stating "15% off discount valid from 10th - 13th June 2011 inclusive... Voucher excludes deliveries, installations and gift card purchases."

Home Retail Group reported the ad to the ASA for being misleading because of the exclusions applied.

In defence, B&Q said it had complied with the CAP Code, which says ads must state their qualifications and limitations, which can clarify but not contradict the claims they qualify. B&Q said there were roughly 40,000 product lines for sale in its stores and that all were included in the 15% off everything offer.

B&Q said that given the volume of products included in the offer and that there were just three exclusions - installations, deliveries and gift cards - the ad was not misleading. The retailer added that no complaints had been received from customers about the ad being misleading.

The ASA investigated under the CAP code sections for misleading ads, qualification and sales promotion and found the ad was not in breach. The ruling stated: "We considered recipients were likely to consider that deliveries, installations and gift card purchases were not products in that sense; that they therefore might not be included in the offer and that, consequently, the small print clarified but did not contradict the offer."

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