Online headphone retailer iheadphones.co.uk, run by Nusystems
Ltd, was investigated by advertising watchdog the Advertising
Standards Agency (ASA), which found that a competition it ran broke
the ASA's rules on truthfulness, competitions and
administration.
Iheadphones carries customer reviews of headphones and in order
to encourage users of the site to write reviews it offered a prize
for the best review submitted last October. That prize, a £329.99
pair of headphones, has never been awarded despite the submission
of hundreds of reviews.
"Iheadphones said the response to the competition was
overwhelming and that they had been inundated with reviews for
hundreds of products," said the ASA ruling. "They explained that,
by the time it came to judging the competition, the two members of
staff who had the best knowledge of all the products, and whose job
it was to pick the winners, were no longer with the company."
Iheadphones also said that it was busy during the Christmas
period, and that it was not aware how serious it was to have
delayed the process of choosing a winner of its prize.
The ASA said that the competition should have been run better,
and that entrants should have been informed of any changes to the
way it was run.
"The lengthy delay to the judging process could cause
participants unnecessary disappointment," said its ruling. "We also
considered that iheadphones should have notified consumers that the
competition would be delayed, and provided them with details of
when the winner would be decided. Because the competition had not
been administered in that way, we concluded that the ad breached
the Code."
The ASA said that the competition had broken its rules on
substantiation truthfulness, sales promotion rules, administration
and closing dates.
Despite the finding that the competition had broken its rules,
though, the ASA said that it did not think that the company was
attempting to mislead the public.
"We acknowledged that the problem with the competition's
administration was largely beyond iheadphones' control, and we
welcomed iheadphones' assurance that the competition entries would
still be judged and a winner chosen, in line with the original ad.
We therefore considered that the competition was genuine," it
said.
In recent months the running of competitions by businesses has
proved controversial. Broadcasters were fined millions of pounds
last year over phone in competitions that were judged to have
misled the public.
Changes to the rules surrounding lotteries and gambling last
year have also reminded companies that competitions should be run
in line with all the appropriate rules and laws.
