Tesco price comparison adverts ruled misleading

Wednesday 29th July 2009

Tesco price comparison adverts have been banned by the advertising watchdog for being "misleading".

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the supermarket must not use the adverts, after complaints were made comparing Tesco products with those from Aldi and Asda.

The ASA said the adverts, published on TV and in newspapers, did not give customers enough information to make an informed choice, dubbing them "unfair".

The issue was whether the real comparison of a basket of shopping as "like for like" included the same products - with small print stating "closest match applied".

It also said the exclusion of a number of items in each basket meant it was impossible to determine whether Tesco was cheaper as claimed.

There were also complaints made by Aldi and a member of the public over Tesco's claims it was "Britain's Biggest Discounter", which compared the price of nappies and washing-up liquid from the two stores. Tesco said it had considered the claim carefully before making it.

However, the ASA said the claim was misleading. It ruled: "The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Tesco to ensure comparisons were clear and fair in future."

In response to the ruling, a Tesco spokeswoman said: "We produced our real basket adverts in line with the ASA's own guidance on comparative advertising and in consultation with Clearcast - the company responsible for pre-transmission clearance of all TV adverts.

"We are reassured that in its investigation of these complaints the ASA has not found anything fundamentally wrong with the substance of our message that more of our customers' matched baskets are cheaper at Tesco than they would have been at Asda. We welcome the further detailed guidance the ASA has provided on the execution of the adverts as this will make them even clearer for customers going forward."

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