The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against HolidayGenie.com.
The online travel agent, which is owned by Flying Eagles, had posted an advert on comparison site Cheapflights.com for a £201 fare from London Heathrow to Montreal. The complainant was unable to find a flight for that price and argued that none had ever been available.
Flying Eagles defended itself by saying it was not always possible to remove adverts from the website as soon as the advertised offer had sold out.
However, the ASA upheld the complaint because the travel company was unable to provide proof that the £201 fare had ever existed.
It said: “We noted..they were unable to provide evidence that return flights were available for £201 on the Montreal route. Because they did not hold substantiation in support of the advertised “from” price, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.
“The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Flying Eagles not to advertise prices for flights unless they held evidence that a reasonable proportion was available at the stated ‘from’ price.”