An advert purporting to offer £1,000 discounts on Cyprus holidays has been banned.
The adverting watchdog upheld a complaint that an insert from RSD Travel in Boundless Magazine in February last year was misleading.
The promotion offered hotel stays for £129 instead of £1,129 and included a £1,000 discount voucher.
However, a reader challenged whether the £1,000 saving claimed was misleading and could be substantiated.
Upholding the complaint today, the Advertising Standards Authority said: “RSD had not provided any evidence to demonstrate that the savings claim was achievable at the time the ad appeared.
“In the absence of information about the basis of the higher price upfront, consumers would not have an informed understanding of how the discounted price constituted a genuine saving.
“We further considered that due to the long periods between the printing cycles of the magazine and the dynamic nature of pricing in the travel sector online, the savings claim was likely to be out of date by the time the ad was seen by consumers.
“In light of those factors, we concluded that the savings claim was misleading.”
The ASA ruled that the advert must not appear again “in the form complained about”.
The authority added: “We told RSD Travel to ensure that in future the basis of their price comparisons were clearly presented and to ensure that the prices used as the basis of savings claims were up to date.
“We also told them to ensure that they held adequate evidence to substantiate their savings claims.”
RSD Travel told the ASA it had not received any complaints relating to misleading pricing from the 5,155 customers who had participated in Cyprus tours in the 2018-19 season.
The operator explained that the ’from’ price in the advert was not based on the price of tours previously sold by RSD but on the prices that would be charged if the components of the tour – such as flights, accommodation, transfers and tours – were booked separately by the consumer.