A Co-op advert promoting its Aldi price-match scheme has been ruled misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for failing to compare similar products.
Aldi filed a list of 45 items with the ASA used in the convenience store chain’s advert in August that it did not believe were appropriately compared.
The Co-op’s advert said: “Everyday Essentials price matched to Aldi”; and: “We match the prices of certain Co-op products against comparable products available at Aldi.”
The ASA ruled that while there were items in the scheme that were an exact match in terms of product variants and size, certain products had been matched to similar alternatives where there were no identical comparisons in Aldi.
For example, Co-op’s linguine pasta was price-matched to Aldi’s Cucina spaghetti, while Co-op’s summer fruits flavoured still spring water was matched with Aldi’s apple and blackcurrant flavoured still water.
The ASA said: “We considered that consumers would understand the prices to be matched against the same products sold by both stores, or, for those who had read the small text at the bottom of the ad, that on the occasion the same product was not sold, the nearest comparable individual product would be selected for comparison.
“However, because Aldi’s nearest comparable individual product had not always been selected by Co-op for inclusion in the price match, and because no sufficiently prominent information was provided or adequately signposted to explain how products were deemed ‘comparable’, and to verify the claim, we concluded that the basis of the comparison had not been made clear and that the ad was therefore misleading.”
A Co-op spokesperson told Retail Week: “We ensure the product comparisons utilised in our Aldi Price match offer are presented clearly on our website to enable shoppers to easily verify the matches and in response to the ruling, we have now made changes to our T&Cs online.”
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