The promotion was found on Hertz's website by clicking a button
on an airline's site. Headed "UK £1 Offer" it claimed, "Hire a car
in the UK from as little £1 [sic] plus Location Service Charge. You
pay the Location Service Charge* and we will rent you a car for
just £1**".
The single asterisk was linked to text that stated: "Location
Service Charge £25.85/€37.36 including VAT". The double asterisk
was linked to text that stated: "Terms and Conditions apply". The
terms and conditions were listed below.
The complaint did not come from either a rival or a member of
the public; rather, the ad was spotted by the CAP Compliance team
which complained to the ASA. CAP is the Committee of Advertising
Practice, which writes the rule book enforced by the ASA, the CAP
Code.
The Compliance team objected that the quoted price of £1 on the
promoter's website was misleading because the Location Service
Charge, a known, fixed and non-optional charge, was not included.
The CAP Code says: "No marketing communication should mislead, or
be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration,
omission or otherwise."
The ASA upheld the complaint. Hertz argued that the offer was
not misleading because the promotion included all the relevant
information and that customers had all the relevant information
before they were invited to start the booking process.
But the ASA considered that the headline claim "UK £1 Offer"
implied that consumers were being offered something for £1. Because
the promotion required consumers to spend a minimum of £26.85, it
considered that the headline claim exaggerated the benefit to
consumers.
The ASA asked Hertz to ensure that in future similar promotions
they quoted prices that included known, fixed and non-optional
charges.
