Eon advert banned after Npower informs on compatriot

The Advertising Standards Agency has ruled that an Eon advert promising two months of free energy is misleading and must not reappear again in its current form. RWE Npower had shopped its fellow German-owned supplier to the ASA.

At issue was the wording of an offer that appeared last October promising two months free energy to customers who signed up for a two year dual fuel deal. However, Npower challenged whether the claim to two months of free energy was misleading because Eon had removed the normal dual fuel direct debit discount to cover the cost of this offer. Eon had included in the small print that direct debit discounts would no longer apply.

In a statement, the ASA said that for customers who were already receiving a discount for paying by direct debit “the main claim that they would not be charged for two months’ worth of energy was misleading because it did not take into account the discount they had already been receiving for paying by direct debit, which they would lose if they took up the offer.” The agency said that for those customers “the small print contradicted rather than qualified the offer … and the ad was therefore misleading”.

Eon was also told another ad relating to fixed price deals must not appear in its current form because it did not make clear to consumers that they were required to switch to the new tariff in order to benefit from the fixed prices.