Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

OFT tackles misleading prize competitions

13 Apr 2005, 7:11 pm

A company that sent misleading messages to consumers, trying to persuade them to call a premium rate number to collect a prize, has agreed not to use misleading advertising in future, following action by the UK's Office of Fair Trading ( OFT ).

According to the OFT, the promoters of Jackpot Promotions sent unsolicited automated telephone messages to over seven million consumers, advising them that, as a result of entering a competition the previous year, they had won prizes such as a Volkswagen Beetle worth £15,000, a plasma screen television, a DVD player, a PC, £6,000 cash or an all-inclusive Bahamas cruise.Fifteen-thousand people responded to the message by calling a premium rate number at a cost of £1.50 per minute.But in the OFT's view, the automated telephone message was misleading as it gave the impression that the recipient had been lucky and won a major prize.In fact nearly everyone who responded to the message received a 'giveaway' item of a cruise voucher with stringent terms and conditions attached. And, unsurprisingly, recipients of the message had not previously entered one of the promoter's competitions – the promoters had simply bought their telephone numbers from a specialist database.The promoters of the competition, John Timothy Kitching, Alix Faye Thornton and Heaven Communications Limited, were also involved in other misleading premium rate promotions advertised via automated telephone calls and an unsolicited mailing, said the OFT.The consumer watchdog took action against the company and its officers under The Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations (CMARs) 1988, which give the OFT the power to step in where it is in the public interest that an advert should be stopped and future misleading ads prevented.As a result, Heaven Communications Limited and its officers have now given the OFT undertakings that they will not use misleading advertising to promote such competitions in future. If the undertakings are breached the OFT is empowered to seek a court injunction against the promoters, which, if disobeyed, could result in proceedings for contempt of court."These were highly misleading telephone messages," said OFT Chairman, Sir John Vickers. "Consumers should not respond to any unsolicited messages telling them that they have won a major prize. Action will be taken to stop this type of deceptive practice."