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Monarch barred from repeating ‘misleading’ extra legroom price ad

Monarch Airlines has been barred from repeating an email advert for extra legroom from £11.99 after it was found to be misleading.

The advertising watchdog upheld a complaint from a consumer who could only find extra legroom seats on his flight priced at €26.99.

Monarch argued that it was justified in making the pricing claim as on 31 out of 109 routes on sale at the time, there was extra legroom seating priced at £11.99 or less, which amounted to more than 28% of its availability.

The Advertising Standards Authority considered it was acceptable for Monarch to claim that extra legroom seating was available “from £11.99” if 28% of its available extra legroom seats were available at that price or less.

But the ASA said it was concerned that the carrier had been unable to provide any documentary evidence to support the statement.

Making its ruling, the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Monarch to ensure they held documentary evidence before making pricing claims in future.”

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