EasyJet has been criticised by the advertising watchdog over claims that all seats were being discounted by 30%.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld three complaints that the e-mail and TV adverts in January were misleading because ‘sale’ prices were the same even before the promotion started.
The airline said that because of its dynamic pricing structure, it was entirely possible that a customer checking availability would see fares increasing, even during a discount period, as each section of seats was sold out.
But the ASA ruled that EasyJet should not state that quoted discounts applied to all flights during the promotional period unless it could substantiate that 10% of seats on each flight were discounted by the quoted ‘up to’ figure.
“We told them that, for similar promotions, they must hold evidence to substantiate that quoted discounts applied to those seats which were actually available to consumers at the start of the promotional period,” the ASA said.
“We also told them to ensure their ads included information about their pricing structure and how the sale was applied to it.”