Budget supermarket lidl has been forced to pull a 'misleading' advertisement following a complaint from their rival Aldi. The popular discounted supermarket chain was recently rapped by an advertising watchdog over a leaflet for last year's Black Friday sales event.
The Advertising Standards Agnency (ASA) upheld a complaint from Aldi that suggested that Lidl's advertising leaflet was "misleading" and did not reflect the prices that goods were sold across the market.
Aldi made the claims back on November 25 last year, following Lidl's Black Friday Sale leaflet that was featured in a national newspaper. The leaflet in question highlighted a few of the supermarket's products that were available in the sale and compared their prices with their usual RRP's.
Some of the items being sold were advertised as being up to 50% cheaper with Lidl. Items that were being sold included a TV being sold £259 and an RRP of £409.99, a mattress at £199.99 and an RRP of £499, a vacuum cleaner at £99.99 and an RRP of £199.99, an Asus Chromebook for £149.99 and an RRP of £399.99 and an iron for £39.99 and an RRP of £79.99.
Despite Lidl providing evidence to support their pricing claims, Aldi believed the quoted RRP's differed significantly from the prices at which the items were generally sold.
The ASA has since upheld Aldi's complained against their budget supermarket rival and have told Lidl that future RRP's of products being sold should accurately match their price.
In the complaints ruling, The ASA said: “Given the number of retailers selling those products across the market, the examples provided (which consisted of one other retailer and, in some cases, the manufacturers’ website) were insufficient to demonstrate that the products were generally sold at the RRPs claimed in the ads.”
The advertising watchdog said, while Lidl had managed to provide sufficient evidence for the RRP of the vacuum cleaner, the other prices were not accurate. The supermarket was found to have provided insufficient evidence that the rest of the products RRP's were accurate.
Lidl have since been told by The ASA that the ads must not appear again in the form complained about and that they must hold adequate evidence for any future savings claims.
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