Aldi has failed to overturn the ban on its Swap and Save 40% ads.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled in June that the ad was unfair and misleading after it compared the price of Aldi’s own-label products against the price of premium brands at other supermarkets. Aldi also failed to identify which retailers were used in the comparison.
The discounter appealed, insisting its products could be fairly compared with premium own label lines.
In this week’s new ruling, the ASA backtracked on its suggestion that Aldi had failed to identify which retailers were used in the comparison. It said that as the advert referred to mysupermarket.com in the small print “it would be clear to a consumer visiting the mysupermarket.com website who the top three other retailers were”.
However, the ASA found that as only premium-brand products had been selected from the supermarkets, compared to own-brand products from Aldi, the price comparison was misleading.
The watchdog concluded that the ban on the ad should remain, warning Aldi to “take care not to mislead when presenting savings on selected products”.
Aldi said in a statement: “It has always been our intention to show consumers how much money they could save by shopping at Aldi. We clearly substantiate any price comparison claims made in our Swap and Save adverts to provide consumers with accurate information and to help them make fair and informed choices.
“We’re pleased the ASA has recognised this and that we can continue to demonstrate that Aldi products can cost significantly less than comparable brands and supermarket own-labels.”
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