ASA rules against Hammonds Furniture ad

The ASA ruling was over two elements of the Hammonds website. Firstly, a banner advertisement on the Hammonds Furniture website in May this year. The ad in question stated: “Up to 40% off selected finishes + an extra 5% offer ends in…” and included a countdown timer showing the apparent days, hours and minutes left in the promotion.

It also ruled on a webpage titled “Why choose Hammonds?” which contained the text “We won’t be beaten on quality and price” and “because we design and make everything ourselves, we can offer you better quality furniture at a price others can’t beat”. 

The ASA found the use of the countdown clock was misleading as it only applied to the additional 5% off the deal, while the 40% off deal continued for a further week. In its defence, Hammonds said it believed that consumers would understand that the countdown clock was limited to the 5% deal. 

The watchdog also investigated two issues around Hammonds’ claims that it could not be beaten on price could be substantiated and were verifiable. Hammonds told the ASA that the claims related to its price-match promise and provided a spreadsheet showing the price-match claims it had approved or rejected over 14 months. It also said the firm conducted regular market checks on its pricing against competitors and provided evidence of doing so between February 2024 and August 2025. 

The ASA found that only seven price checks were made against a single competitor and its subsidiaries, and did not believe that this was sufficient to substantiate its claims. 

On the price-match promise claims, the ASA said: “The ad did not make any reference to their price match promise, nor provide a link to where information about it could be found.

“Moreover, we considered that because Hammonds Furniture said they were not able to make a direct comparison between their price list and their competitors, as they offered bespoke furniture products, it would not be possible to verify the claims that their prices could not be beaten.”

The ruling said: “The ads must not appear again in their current form.” Hammonds Furniture must also not imply in future advertising that discount offers are time-limited if they are not and were told not to make comparative claims against competitors without adequate substantiation.”