The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that the BBC and Ticketmaster misinformed the public with incorrect promotional text about how to claim coronation concert tickets.
Advertisements on the British broadcaster and Ticketmaster websites informed people that the 10,000 tickets were not being made available on a first-come-first-served basis so there was “as much chance of being selected if an application was made on the 10 February 2023 as on the 28th February 2023”.
Yet the ASA received 140 complaints from members of the public who were unable to claim tickets for the event, and challenged messages that read, “Congratulations, you have been successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets to The Coronation Concert”.
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Other complaints pointed out that the claims that the tickets would not be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis were misleading.
BBC Studios accepted the email was not well-worded, acknowledging it congratulated the recipients twice, before explaining that tickets in the supplementary around actually were being offered on a first-come first-served basis.
ASA ruled that the four promotional pages on the BBC and Ticketmaster websites, “misleadingly omitted that tickets for the Coronation Concert would be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and implied that consumers had been allocated tickets”.
The complaints follow this years coronation concert, which featured stars like Lionel Richie and Katy Perry, after the coronation of King Charles.
The misleading adverts are believed to be the first upheld complaints the the regulator has ruled on for the British broadcaster.
