Aucor / R Raubenheimer / 15092
Ruling of the : ASA Directorate
In the matter between:
Rick Raubenheimer	Complainant(s)/Appellant(s)
Aucor (Sandton) (Pty) Ltd	Respondent

08 Mar 2010

Mr Raubenheimer lodged a consumer complaint against a print advertisement for Aucor which was featured in the Tonight supplement of The Star during January 2010.

The advertisement states, inter alia, the following:

“MEGA FURNITURE
AUCTION-NO RESERVE!
Thursday, 28 January @ 10h30 / 562 15 th Road, Midrand
R25,000,000 MILLION INVENTORY TO CLEAR!”

COMPLAINT
In essence, the complainant submitted that the claim to clear 25,000,000 million is impossible as that is approximately 10 times the GDP of South Africa.

RELEVANT CLAUSES OF THE CODE OF ADVERTISING PRACTICE
In light of the complaint the following clauses of the Code were taken into account:

• Section II, Clause 4.1 – Substantiation

• Section II, Clause 4.2.1 - Misleading claims

RESPONSE
The respondent submitted that the advertisement was an error and will not be used again in the future.

ASA DIRECTORATE RULING
The ASA Directorate considered all the relevant documentation submitted by the respective parties.

The ASA has a long standing principle which holds that where an advertiser provides an unequivocal undertaking to withdraw or amend its advertising in a manner that addresses the concerns raised, the undertaking is accepted without considering the merits of the matter.

As the respondent’s undertaking to not use the advertisement again addresses the complainant’s concerns, there is no need for the Directorate to consider the merits of the matter.

The undertaking is therefore accepted on condition that the advertising is withdrawn in its current format within the deadlines stipulated in Clause 15.3 of the Procedural Guide, and is not used again in future.