The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has demanded that fashion brand In the Style takes down a website campaign and two Instagram promotions featuring false discount claims.
The two Instagram stories posted on 20 November last year both featured 50% discount promotions, one of which featured Natasha Sandhu. A website advertisement published on 22 November also featured a 50% discount promoted by Jess Millichamp.
People complained that the clothing collections on offer had not been available for purchase before and that they would not be available for sale at a higher price once the products sold out.
They therefore challenged whether the 50% off claims were misleading.
The fashion retailer admitted that the discounts on collections involving Sandhu and Millichamp were “introductory offers” and that they had not been advertised as such.
They originally intended to sell items at full price once the sales period ended and stated that some of the lines in fact had been sold for more than the sale price since the initial 50% off promotion.
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In the Style also said that the introductory offers on the Sandhu and Millichamp collections had ended and were “subject to the normal trading cycles”.
Nevertheless, the advertising authority found the ads to be deceptive as there was no evidence of clothing lines being originally sold for the “crossed-out” higher-priced amounts featured in the half-price promotion.
They also found that certain products did not rise to the stated reference price once the sales had ended.
“We told In the Style Fashion Ltd to ensure that any future introductory offers were clearly labelled as such,” the ASA said.
“We also told them to ensure that prices were increased as indicated at the end of introductory periods and to ensure they held relevant pricing substantiation for their savings claims in the future.”
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