By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's advertising regulator has upheld a complaint from supermarket group Sainsbury's that German-owned discounter Aldi's ad comparing the prices of their Christmas dinners was misleading.
Sainsbury's is the second largest supermarket group after Tesco (LON:TSCO) in Britain's 230 billion pound ($293 billion) grocery market, while Aldi is No. 4.
Aldi has pledged to always have the lowest prices in Britain, while Sainsbury's says it has never been more competitive.
The ruling published on Wednesday by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) relates to a wrap-around four-page national press ad for Aldi, published on Dec. 6.
Sainsbury's challenged whether the ad's claims of “THE HOME OF BRITAIN’S CHEAPEST CHRISTMAS DINNER” and “Sainsbury’s £44.81”, “Aldi £33.80” and “Swap & Save over 20% on your Christmas dinner” were misleading and could be substantiated.
Sainsbury's also challenged whether the same claims were verifiable and whether Aldi's claim of “2022 PRICE LOCKED” was misleading.
Aldi said the claims were made in the context of an independent third party comparison by consumer group Which?
However, the ASA upheld Sainsbury's complaint on all three issues and said the ad must not appear again in the form complained of.
"We told Aldi ... to ensure that price comparisons with their competitors were not misleading, and that the basis of such comparisons was clear and adequately substantiated," it said.
Sainsbury's welcomed the ASA's ruling. "It’s really important to us that customers are able to make fairly informed decisions about where they choose to shop and we are glad the ASA has recognised the misleading nature of this ad," said a spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Aldi said: “We are disappointed that the ASA has upheld this complaint based on an advertising technicality, but we remain confident that customers will make significant savings every time they shop with Aldi."
($1 = 0.7860 pounds)