A PayPal email offering customers a reward of £10 for using their account did not make it clear it was only available to a limited number of people, the advertising watchdog has ruled.
The Advertising Standards Agency upheld a complaint about the email offer which was limited to only 28,527 customers.
PayPal said it had made the “significant conditions” to the offer clear, intentionally placing the terms next to a button for those wishing to claim the offer.
The email carried the subject “Long time no see. Here’s a £10 reward for you!”, with text reading “We’re giving you £10 to use online with PayPal” followed by a clickable “Save Offer” button, the ASA said.
The company said “Limited to first 28,527 to save offer. Expires 30/09/2020. Terms apply” appeared next to the “Save Offer” button and felt it “included all significant qualifications and conditions”.
“We considered that consumers were likely to understand from the subject line and headline claim that they would receive credit worth £10 from PayPal, and the subsequent qualification was insufficient to counter that impression, we concluded that the ad was misleading and breached the Code,” the ASA ruling said.
