ASA rebukes John Lewis, Boots and Debenhams over inflated Black Friday discounts

"The interventions form part of the ASA's expanding programme of AI-assisted monitoring, which has already produced action against travel firms and the online retailer Very over similar pricing claims. The watchdog has made clear that its proactive Active Ad Monitoring system is being scaled up to identify suspect promotions at speed, particularly around high-stakes trading events such as Black Friday and the January sales."

The Advertising Standards Authority censured John Lewis, Boots, and Debenhams for Black Friday promotions that overstated discount value. The regulator found that reference prices used to calculate savings could not be substantiated as genuine established selling prices. John Lewis faced issues with laptop promotions where earlier prices were not shown to have been in place long enough to qualify as established selling prices. Debenhams received a ruling over banners claiming discounts of “up to 44%” without sufficient evidence that the higher prices reflected usual selling prices. Boots was ruled against for a fragrance marked down from £80 to £60 without adequate proof of usual selling prices. The ASA linked the actions to AI-assisted monitoring and Active Ad Monitoring scaled for major sales events.

Read at Business Matters