Eurostar rapped by advertising watchdog

Eurostar is the latest company to be rapped by advertising watchdogs for attempting to rush customers into booking holidays by claiming only a limited number of tickets were available at a certain price.

The train operator claimed on its website on November 6 last year that there were only two tickets left at £98 return for a journey from London to Paris, departing on December 29 and returning on January 3.

However, a customer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority after discovering that tickets for the same journey were later included in a sale.

In its defence, Eurostar said that other than in ‘certain exceptions’ its cheaper fares were always displayed and sold first. Exceptions were made when sales for a train had been particularly poor or where Eurostar ran a promotion.

It acknowledged that customers could be disappointed to see a price that was lower than they’d paid, but said it ‘believed that was outweighed by the benefit to other customers who would be glad to take advantage of the lower fare’.

However, the ASA said that while consumers would understand that prices for rail travel were likely to fluctuate, often at short notice, consumers would interpret the claim ‘[x] tickets left at this price’ to mean that when these were sold, the price would increase.

"We appreciated that there may be circumstances in which a subsequent lower price would not render the "[x] tickets left at this price" claim misleading," it said.

"However, we considered that where Eurostar knew, or could reasonably have anticipated, that the seats would subsequently be available at a lower price – for example, where a promotion was due to begin or where they were already aware that ticket sales for that train had been poor – it was misleading to describe the current prices in a way that suggested prices would increase if consumers did not act quickly.

"Because we considered consumers would understand the claim "[x] tickets available at this price" in this context would mean that subsequent tickets, if they became available at all, were likely to be at a higher price, when at the time the ad was seen they were aware that those tickets would shortly be included in a sale that resulted in them being offered at a lower price, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

The ASA told Eurostar to ensure its future ads did not mislead consumers by, for example, urging them to act quickly to buy tickets because prices were likely to rise where ‘it knew or could reasonably have anticipated that the seats would subsequently be available at a lower price’.