The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the recommended retail prices (RRP) in a series of Lidl adverts were “misleading”, after the authority received a complaint from competitor chain Aldi.
The adverts, which ran between April and May of this year, were featured across national press as well as on the group’s website. The first national press ad, seen on 25 April 2020, featured a ‘Salter Toastie Maker’ with a price of £14.99 and an RRP of £49.99, as well as a ‘Nescafe Dolce Gusto Infinissima’ with a price of £34.99 and an RRP of £99.99.
According to the ASA, however, Aldi filed a complaint after it believed that the quoted RRPs “differed significantly “from the prices at which the items generally sold.
Lidl hit back at these complaints and explained that its approach to RRPs was “based on the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s guidance for traders on pricing practices”, adding that all of the RRPs featured in the ads were “based on information provided by manufacturers”.
Nonetheless, the ASA found that Lidl did not provide enough evidence to support its argument, with the store only providing “one or two other examples of a product being sold at the price claimed in their ads”.
In addition, the watchdog noted that the examples provided were “insufficient to demonstrate that the products were generally sold at the RRPs claimed in the ads”.
The ASA said: “The ads must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Lidl Great Britain Ltd to ensure that future references to RRPs reflected the price at which the products concerned were generally sold.
“We also told them to ensure that they held adequate evidence to substantiate their savings claims.”
