Eurostar has been censured by the UK’s advertising watchdog for the second time this year for “misleading” potential customers over how many cheap tickets were available during a sale.
The Advertising Standards Authority on Wednesday said two Eurostar adverts offering fares “from £39” had breached its code of conduct because there was no evidence a “significant proportion” of tickets were on sale for that price.
The finding comes less than a year after the cross-channel train operator received a similar censure from the ASA for an earlier £39 sale.
Following that January ruling, Eurostar had “committed to ensuring that this scenario does not occur again”.
But in its Wednesday ruling, the watchdog said two adverts seen on social media in June which promoted journeys from London to Brussels or Amsterdam “from £39” were again in breach of its rules.
It said that consumers viewing the adverts would have assumed they had a “reasonable chance” of buying a discounted ticket for a date they wanted to travel.
But it found that Eurostar was unable to outline how many tickets had been available at the £39 price.
The company had instead said that by July 24, 11.6 per cent of tickets on the routes had been sold at the discounted price for travel during the promotional window.
“We did not consider that was sufficient evidence to demonstrate the availability of tickets at the promotional price at the time the ad was seen,” the ASA ruling said.
It also criticised Eurostar for not explaining date restrictions on the tickets more clearly in the adverts.
In its defence to the regulator, Eurostar said providing detailed information on ticket availability in an advert “was not simple” and could be misleading because of the dynamic and demand-driven pricing models used by most travel companies.
It added that the travel dates were clearly set out in terms and conditions, which were presented on a page one click away from the adverts.
The ASA banned the adverts and told Eurostar “to ensure that when using ‘from’ price claims in future, a significant proportion of the advertised fares were available at the advertised price”.
Eurostar said it would take on board the ASA’s latest ruling and would ensure that the issue did not occur again.
“We will continue to work closely with the ASA to address their concerns and implement any necessary improvements to our advertising practices,” it said.
