Argos has been rapped by the ASA over a “misleading” online ad that suggested limited availability on some out-of-stock products to encourage attempted purchases.
According to the advertising watchdog, Argos failed to substantiate online messages regarding the availability of the sought-after Xbox Series X 1TB console last year.
Two complainants challenged statements such as “last purchased one minute ago” and “selling fast! purchased 24 times since your last visit”, and claimed there was zero collection or delivery availability for that product in any location selected. The ASA asked the Sainsbury’s-owned business to prove the ads were not misleading and intended to encourage attempted purchases.
Argos said the products in question had not completely gone out of stock at the time the ad was seen, and that availability had depended on the geographical vicinity of customers. It said the ads tried to “accurately forecast supply based on availability” but that stock levels frequently fluctuated “especially for highly sought-after products, and at a time when they faced supply chain difficulties”.
However, the company failed to provide historical closing stock positions and was not able to substantiate the claims about recent purchases stated in the ads, so the ASA upheld the complaints on the basis that consumers would understand the pop-up messages to be accurate representations of the sales history.
The ASA said: “We noted that the Xbox Series X console was a product which was in high demand at the time the ad was seen, and that stock levels across the UK were limited.
“We therefore considered that a retailer who listed such an item as being in stock would expect to see an increase in attempted purchases because of the mixture of its scarcity and popularity.”
Additionally, the watchdog said Argos’ website should make it clearer when a product has limited availability and not simply state “in stock”. It ruled the ads “must not appear again in the forms complained about”.
“We told Argos Ltd to ensure they held evidence to demonstrate they had made a reasonable estimate of demand, and that their website accurately portrayed the availability of products in the future.”
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