Eurostar’s £39 fare promotion blasted for being misleading – again
Eurostar has received a scolding from the UK’s advertising watchdog for the second time this year, over adverts promoting £39 fares between London, Brussels and Amsterdam.
A paid for Instagram post and a post on the high-speed operator’s Facebook page told passengers in June to “book now,” advertising fares “from £39 each way” to the European cities.
But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) accused Eurostar of “misleading” consumers with both adverts, after a punter complained the firm had exaggerated the number of cheaper fares available and “omitted a significant limitation”.
ASA’s ruling argued consumers would take both ads to mean that a “significant proportion” of fares to Brussels or Amsterdam would be available at £39, for the current bookable period.
Data provided by Eurostar revealed that 4.2 per cent of the total number of tickets for London to Brussels and 1.6 per cent of the total for London to Amsterdam were obtainable at the advertised price.
The operator was unable to provide forward looking data about availability, arguing this was unavailable due to how tickets are sold, such as through private sales and the ad hoc injection of tickets.
The use of the word “from” was also questioned by ASA, given consumers would have expected to have a “reasonable chance” of obtaining a seat at the asking price.
Dates the tickets were available were between 15 May and 18 September for the London to Amsterdam route and from 26 June to 30 October for the London to Brussels route.
Eurostar argued those dates were available for consumers. The information was displayed at the bottom of the landing page that the ad clicked through to, but ASA considered that this was not “immediately visible.”
“There was no information in the ads regarding dates that the tickets were available for,” it said.
“While information was on the landing page, it was close to the bottom and consumers would have to click to reveal the dates.”
ASA said it had instructed Eurostar to ensure that when using “from” price claims in future, a significant proportion of advertised fares are available at the stipulated price. Future marketing must also make travel dates “sufficiently clear” for tickets with limited availability.
The ruling will pile fresh scrutiny on the way Eurostar has chosen to promote its fares in recent years.
Eurostar falls foul of ASA for second time this year
In January, the group was censured by the advertising authority after breaching rules around misleading advertising for £39 fares to Paris, Brussels and Lille.
ASA had concluded in that ruling that only a “very small percentage” of tickets were available at the price shown.
A spokesperson for the rail firm said: “At Eurostar, we value customer feedback, including complaints, and we take great care in the way that we word our advertising.
“We understand and take on board the ASA’s (Advertising Standards Authority) latest ruling, which is related to seat availability at the lead-in price in any given period and are committed to ensuring that this scenario does not occur again.”
The spokesperson added: “We will continue to work closely with the ASA to address their concerns and implement any necessary improvements to our advertising practices.”