Discount grocer Aldi has had its knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making misleading claims about its Christmas dinner deals, following a complaint from supermarket rival Sainsbury’s.
The wrap-around four page press ad which caused the stir was published in December 2023 and read: ‘The home of Britain’s cheapest Christmas dinner. Why go anywhere else?’.
A separate breakout read ‘2022 price locked’, while the ad also highlighted that it had been named the cheapest Christmas dinner by independent third party and consumer watchdog Which?.
Sainsbury’s complained about the ad on three separate counts; namely that Aldi’s comparative price claims within the ad were misleading, that those same claims could not be verified and that the ‘2022 price locked’ claim was also misleading.
Specifically, Sainsbury’s said that one of the main reasons the ad was misleading was because the price comparison did not reflect prices during the period when consumers would be buying fresh produce for their Christmas dinner.
The supermarket said it generally introduced new deals in the last week before Christmas.
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The ASA upheld Sainsbury’s complaint about the price lock and whether it was verifiable on the grounds that the small text pointing to the comparison site could easily be overlooked, and because Which? didn’t make the weight of each product clear.
It further raised that the price lock claim would be understood to relate to Aldi’s prices at Christmas 2022 being the same as at Christmas 2023.
The ASA told Aldi the ad could not appear in the same format again, and highlighted that it must clearly substantiate all price lock claims.
At Christmas and beyond, it is common for supermarkets to compete on price match claims – recent ads have seen Sainsbury’s, Asda and M&S all launch creative spots highlighting deals for customers.
Supermarkets change their prices up to weekly, and can fluctuate to take advantage of popular times to buy products.
The ASA ruling could set a precedent that makes grocers wary of making ‘price lock’ claims and their implications.
