Misleading, untruthful, inaccurate: the verdict on British Gas adverts

Britain’s biggest energy supplier, British Gas, has been accused of playing dirty in the industry’s price wars after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned its advertising for the seventh time this year.

In a ruling published today, the ASA judged that television and press adverts promoting the British Gas “price protection” promise broke its rules eight times.
The adjudication brings to 28 the number of times the company has breached the advertising industry’s regulations this year – a record so bad that the ASA has summoned British Gas to a meeting to discuss its behaviour.

The company could be ordered to have all its adverts vetted or, in an “extreme” case, be referred to the Office of Fair Trading for prosecution.

In the past year, British Gas adverts have been found to misleading, untruthful, inaccurate, denigratory or to have infringed rules on personal distress, comparisons or qualifications.

The Independent