Three UK Get Carphone Warehouse Ad Pulled for “LOWEST PRICE” Claim

A complaint by mobile operator Three UK has caused the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban two website promotions for 4G pay-monthly mobile plans from the Carphone Warehouse, which misleadingly claimed to be offering the “UK’S LOWEST PRICE” and “THE BEST PRICE.”

Three UK challenged the claims by suggesting that they were based on a comparison with only a selection of competitors and “it was not sufficiently clear what prices and products had been compared“. The Carphone Warehouse later acknowledged the complaint, but the ASA states that they failed to “provide a substantive response“.

ASA Ruling (REF: A16-333366)

Because we considered that the claim gave the impression that Carphone Warehouse had compared the prices and offers of all UK retailers in order to ensure that the price they offered was the lowest, which was not the case, we concluded that the claim “UK’S LOWEST PRICE” was likely to mislead consumers.

Because we saw no evidence to substantiate the claim that Carphone Warehouse offered the best price, we concluded that the claim “AT THE BEST PRICE” was misleading.

As usual the ASA banned the promotions and told the Carphone Warehouse to ensure that they made the basis of their comparative claims clear and did not “misleadingly imply” that they applied to all their competitors if that was not the case.