A complaint that Rebel Sport's November promotion that its 20 per cent discount offer would not "get any better this side of Christmas" was untrue, has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board.
The complainant said that though Rebel Sport advertised on November 27 that its 20 per cent discount
off everything would be on November 29 and would not be bettered before Christmas, the company advertised a 10 per cent to 50 per cent discount on December 4.
The complainant said she believed the first campaign was not true and was aimed at luring consumers into the store under false pretences because consumers believed they were getting the cheapest price before Christmas.
"Yet one week later they are deducting 50 per cent off some of the same goods. This is obviously a case of false advertising," she said.
In response Rebel Sport said that, although some of the subsequent pre-Christmas promotions involved discounts of up to 50 per cent on some products, the "vast majority" of products on offer on those days were at lower base discounts of either 10 per cent or 15 per cent. There were no promotions between November 29 and Christmas Day that offered higher store-wide discounts than the 20 per cent offered on November 29.
The Complaints Board said in its finding the complainant did not have the benefit of printed information but had to rely entirely on a television advertisement which gave the promise "it won't get any better than this before Christmas" with the added reassurance "guaranteed".
The board said the quantity of this type of discount offering advertising used by Rebel Sport contributed to consumer confusion.
It said it was also of the view that the fact a customer could seek and get a greater discount should they see the product further reduced after they had bought it did not justify the use of the absolute claim "it won't get any better ... guaranteed" and was false.
"To obtain the refund, one would have to follow the pricing and probably make further visits to the shop which ... was an unsatisfactory expectation of the customer, particularly at Christmas time," the board said.
- NZPA
