Advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
has released its annual report for 2007 which outlines the pattern
of complaints about advertising. The internet was the subject of
almost 3,000 complaints.
The ASA said, though, that the large majority of
internet-related complaints were to do with content on websites and
not advertising.
"A total of 2,980 complaints were received about internet
advertising," said the report. "Of those, 2,144 (72%) were about
the content of websites and as such fell outside of the ASA’s
remit."
"The number of complaints we receive about advertising on the
internet continues to grow strongly," said former Culture Secretary
Chris Smith, now Lord Smith of Finsbury, the chairman of the
ASA.
"Some of these – where banner or pop-up ads, emails or virals
are concerned – are within our remit, but the overwhelming
proportion of complaints are ones we currently cannot address,
because they relate to advertising claims on companies’ own
websites, and as such fall outside our remit," he said.
Smith said that the ASA was waiting for guidance on how to adapt
its principles and limits to advertising on the internet.
"Interestingly, these complaints are almost entirely about
truth, accuracy, misleadingness, and availability – the 'meat and
drink' of the ASA’s daily work on print and broadcast ads," he
said. "We hope for an early outcome to the detailed discussions
under way within the industry, led by the Advertising Association,
on the development of ways to ensure continued responsibility in
advertising in new media settings.
The ASA found that the most commonly complained about features
of online advertisements differed to those of their offline
counterparts.
"The vast majority of all complaints about the internet (84%)
were about misleading advertisements or content," said the ASA's
report. "Complaints about pricing and charges and the availability
of products are more common in online advertising than in
traditional media."
"Other common complaints about online advertising relate to
delivery times or the omission of relevant information. In 2007,
just 8% of internet complaints were about offensiveness and only 2%
related to harm," it said.
It said that advertising related complaints included complaints
about online sponsored search, which accounted for 3.4% of the
total, display internet advertising, which accounted for 11.6% and
classified, video and viral ads.
Some of the complaints received by the ASA about the material
published by web businesses, rather than by advertisers, may be
better directed to the Office of Fair Trading or its consumer
advice service Consumer Direct.
Consumer Direct said nearly 70,000 people complained to it about
online traders last year. "Consumer Direct received 69,130
complaints about goods and services purchased online in 2007," said
a Consumer Direct statement. "This represents about 8.5% of our
total complaint calls."
"Of those, 20,301 were about defective goods, 15,088 were about
problems with delivery, collection and repair, 11,322 were about
substandard services and 7,949 concerned misleading claims or
omissions," it said.
The OFT carried out its own research last year into the state of
online shopping. "We asked internet shoppers if they had
experienced any problems when shopping online," said its report of
last year. "Nearly a quarter (23%) told us that they had
experienced at least one problem when buying online in the previous
year."
The report found that the greatest number of problems were not
specific to the internet but were more generally to do with
distance selling. It found that 48% of problems were related to
delivery and communication was a major problem.
"Our data on complaints suggests that the volume of consumer
complaints does not appear unusual when compared to other distance
selling channels, and that the types of complaints match those for
mail order," it said.
