The watchdog ruled that the ads on Instagram and Facebook for trips from London to Amsterdam and Brussels were misleading.
The ASA told the train operator to ensure that when using “from” price claims in future, a significant proportion of the advertised fares were available at the advertised price. It also told Eurostar to ensure that future marketing made travel dates sufficiently clear for tickets with limited availability.
Social media ads
A paid for Instagram post seen in June 2024 said: “Book now – London > Amsterdam from £39 each way* […] *T&Cs apply.” A post on the Eurostar Facebook page seen at around the same time stated: “Book now – London > Brussels from £39 each way* […] *T&Cs apply.”
The complainant, who had only found limited tickets at the advertised price, challenged whether both ads were misleading because they exaggerated the availability of the advertised tickets and omitted a significant limitation.
Eurostar’s response
In response, Eurostar told the ASA that presenting the number of £39 fares as a percentage of all tickets did not accurately represent their availability because some were sold to businesses.
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It claimed that as of 21 July 2024, 11.6% of tickets at £39 had been sold for travel on the two routes between the relevant travel dates, excluding blackout dates. It said it believed, on that basis, the “from” claim in the ads did not exaggerate the availability or number of tickets available to consumers.
Lack of evidence
But the ASA said Eurostar did not provide “sufficient evidence” and “the responsibility was on Eurostar to demonstrate that the ‘from’ price did not exaggerate the availability or number of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer.”
The dates the offer applied to when the ads were seen were from 26 June 2024 to 30 October 2024 for London to Brussels and from 15 May 2024 to 18 September 2024 for London to Amsterdam.
But the ASA said this was not made clear in the ad. It added that Eurostar had not been able to provide the watchdog with evidence demonstrating the proportion of tickets available at the “from” price at the time the ad was seen, either for the bookable period at the time, or for the period during which the promotion ran.
The ASA said the historical data provided by Eurostar only gave information about the number of tickets sold and did not provide figures on the availability of the £39 tickets or the number of full-priced tickets.
Regarding the complaint that the ads had omitted a significant limitation, the ASA said the ads were misleading because they didn’t include any information about the offer dates, which was ‘material information’.
Sue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said: “All too often, we see holidaymakers misled by too-good-to-be-true pricing, where companies reel consumers in with the promise of a great price, only for it to be nigh on impossible to make a booking at the bargain rate.
“While it is right that the Advertising Standards Agency is taking action against Eurostar’s misleading adverts, companies shouldn’t be emboldened to repeatedly push the boundaries of the advertising code as Eurostar has done this year. It is clear that stronger enforcement of consumer law on unfair trading practices is needed to ensure businesses know that misleading pricing will not be tolerated.”
