Tui UK has been ordered to better explain the availability of free child places in brochures after the advertising watchdog upheld a complaint against the operator.
In a ruling due to be announced on Wednesday, the Advertising Standards Authority told Tui not to run the brochures again in their current form despite the operator denying that free child place price panels published in June and September last year were misleading.
The ASA acted after receiving two complaints about the brochures, claiming they misleadingly implied all ‘first child’ places were free, but there were only a limited number of free child places available.
In its adjudication, the ASA said: “We considered references to free child places throughout the brochures, including in the price tables, should have made immediately clear that there were a limited number of free child places only.”
It added: “We noted Tui intended to amend the price panels to state below “Free Child Places subject to availability. See our A-Z at the back of the brochure for any additional charges and information” and that other references to the free child places would include text directing readers to the ‘A-Z’.
“We considered, however, that was also not sufficiently explicit to make clear that the free child places were limited in number.”