Aldi’s ‘misleading’ adverts banned by watchdog

The adverts claimed shoppers could make significant savings at Aldi compared to the major supermarkets.

Aldi adverts claiming its goods were cheaper than the ‘big four’ supermarkets have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being misleading.

The three adverts alleged that your shop would cost £70 at the discount supermarket, compared to £98 at larger rivals like Morrisons, Tesco and Asda.

However, the ASA received a number of complaints, most notably from Morrisons, claiming the adverts weren’t clear Aldi was comparing its own-brand products to branded products at the other shops.

In its ruling, the ASA said: "We acknowledged that Aldi stated they had not intended the comparisons to represent a 'typical' weekly shop, but to be a comparison between the pictured products only.

"Nonetheless, we considered that was how consumers would interpret the adverts rather than as a representation of the savings which could be made by switching from a largely branded shop to shopping in Aldi, and therefore assessed them on that basis."

As such, the ads were misleading and could not run again in their current form, it said.

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What Aldi has said

The discount chain has been highly critical of the ASA’s verdict. It claimed shoppers would understand the ads as intended, and that they weren’t comparing identical branded goods.

Matthew Barnes, chief executive officer of Aldi UK and Ireland, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ASA's decision, which he described as “ambiguous and inconsistent”.

He added: “The use of comparative advertising is a well-established principle and is firmly in the interests of consumers and encourages competition between retailers.”

“We will work within this new guidance from the ASA and continue to promote the significant price gap between Aldi's quality, award-winning products and their higher priced brand equivalents.”

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