Lidl rapped after its ads were reported by Aldi to the ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint by Aldi against Lidl over misleading price claims.
The complaint was made over a leaflet inserted into a national newspaper last November for Lidl’s Black Friday sale which featured a number of recommended retail prices for products such as a Sharp TV, Asus laptop and Gtech cordless vacuum cleaner. Each item was listed with a claimed recommended retail price as well as Lidl’s own lower price.
Aldi argued that the quoted recommended retail prices differed significantly from the prices at which the items were generally sold and challenged whether the recommended retail price claims could be substantiated and were misleading.
In response, Lidl provided screenshots from manufacturers’ and other retailers’ websites showing prices for the advertised products around the time the ad appeared.
However, it acknowledged that an error meant that the recommended retail price for the Asus laptop was shown as £399.99 not £339 and apologised for that.
In its ruling, the ASA said Lidl had provided enough evidence to show that the Gtech vacuum cleaner was generally available across the market at the advertised recommended retail price around the time the ad was published. However, it said that the other product examples were insufficient to demonstrate that they were generally sold at the recommended retail prices claimed in the ads.
It added: “For those reasons, we concluded that the recommended retail price and savings claims for those products had not been substantiated and were misleading.”
The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about and told Lidl that it must ensure that future references to recommended retail prices reflected the price at which the products concerned were generally sold.
