PPI Claims Management Company Ltd t/a Lion Claimline

[Conniff]

ASA Adjudication on PPI Claims Management Company Ltd

 

PPI Claims Management Company Ltd t/a Lion Claimline

The Perfume Factory

140 Wales Farm Road

London

W3 6UG

 

Date: 6 August 2014

 

Media: E-mail

Sector: Financial

 

Number of complaints: 1

Complaint Ref: A14-264781

Background

Summary of Council decision:

 

Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.

 

Ad

An e-mail from a PPI claims management company, stated "... we only send emails to people who have provided their permission and wish to receive them".

 

Issue

The complainant challenged whether;

 

1. the email breached the Code because it was unsolicited; and,

 

2. the claim "... we only send emails to people who have provided their permission and wish to receive them" was misleading and could be substantiated.

 

CAP Code (Edition 12)

10.410.4.43.13.7

Response

1. & 2. PPI Claims Management Company Ltd t/a Lion Claimline said the complainant's e-mail address had been collected by one of their external lead providers, who they commissioned to send out advertising content and who used external suppliers' opt-in mailing lists. They said they, and their external provider, used content only from opt-in mailing lists and they provided an assurance that the complainant's e-mail address would be removed from any further mailings.

 

Assessment

1. Upheld

 

The ASA acknowledged Lion Claimline's assurance that they would remove the complainant's e-mail address from their database to ensure they received no further marketing communications. However, despite the complainant's assertion that they regularly opted-out of future e-mail communications, they had nevertheless received a further marketing communication. Because a marketing communication had been sent to a consumer unsolicited we concluded it breached the Code.

 

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 10.4 and 10.4.4 (Database practice).

 

2. Upheld

 

As with point 1, we understood that the complainant had received a marketing communication despite not having opted in, which we considered contradicted Lion Claimline's claim that they only sent e-mails to people who have provided their permission and wished to receive them. We therefore concluded the claim was unsubstantiated and likely to mislead.

 

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).

 

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Lion Claimline to ensure they did not send unsolicited e-mails, and to avoid making claims that e-mails were sent only to those who requested them in future, unless they were able to demonstrate it unequivocally.