A Sunglasses Hut, a Halfords outlet, Ryanair and an Organic food shop Co Dublin were among the businesses to fall foul of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASA) in its latest report which was published today.
A Sunglasses Hut promotion offering "10 per cent Off All Sunglasses" was deemed to be misleading on the grounds that the offer did not include glasses from Ray Ban or Chanel while the Organic Shop in Blackrock fell foul of the authority on a number of grounds including a claim that food sold in the shop was "Healthy" with "More vitamins, minerals and detoxifying antioxidants."
A member of the public complained arguing that there was no scientific evidence to support this claim as not all organic food would have more vitamins and minerals than non-organic food.
The authority upheld the complaint and said that while it acknowledged that the claims featured on the website were similar to those on Organic Trust website it said that in amending or shortening the claims, their meaning had changed or lost clarity.
Another member of the public complained about a Halfords promotion which promised 40 per cent off selected Carrera bikes. The person could not find a brand of that bike with such a discount and as Halfords did not respond to the ASAI it was automatically found to be in breach.
Ryanair similarly failed to address the ASAI over a pricing issue and it too was automatically censured.
