The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken action against another life insurance lead generator as part of its crackdown on the sector.
This latest action has seen the regulator ban adverts placed by Digital Result Group which trades as UK Life Protection, British Life Cover and British Life Benefits.
It upheld five complaints, ruling that because the ads were for a lead generation company, which was not made clear, they were misleading and breached its code.
The ASA also ruled that because the ads omitted material information relating to the basis of the stated cover levels, that they were misleading.
Digital Results Group did not respond to enquiries and was reminded of its responsibility to do so in future, and the case has been referred to the CAP Compliance team.
“We told Digital Results Group GmbH trading as UK Life Protection, British Life Cover Quotes and British Life Benefit not to claim or imply that they were acting for purposes outside their trade or business and to make clear the commercial intent of their marketing,” the ASA said.
“We also told them to ensure that they made clear the basis of stated levels of cover, including that they stipulated where factors such as age, lifestyle and health were taken into account when quotes were generated.
“We further told them to ensure that any claims made in their advertising were substantiated,” it added.
Facebook adverts and website claims
The regulator investigated three paid for Facebook ads seen in August 2022 and claims made on the UK Life Protection website.
It challenged whether all of the ads were misleading because they implied the advertisers’ websites could provide online quotes and did not make clear they were a lead generation service.
The ASA also challenged whether the Facebook ads were misleading because they did not make clear the basis of the stated cover levels, or that the level of cover was based on factors including age, health and lifestyle.
The ads claimed that customers could “save up to 65% on Life Insurance Cover”.
And claims made in the ads including “Best Policy, Best Price. That is our promise to you and your family” and that customers could “Try it Risk Free with our 30 day Money Back Guarantee” were also challenged as to whether they were misleading and could be substantiated.
On the claim that customers could “save up to 65% on Life Insurance Cover”, the ASA ruled that the ad did not make clear the basis on which consumers could supposedly make a saving, and that the claim was therefore ambiguous.
The ASA added it expected to see evidence to demonstrate that consumers could achieve the stated saving and as Digital Results Group did not provide any evidence, it concluded the claims had not been substantiated and were misleading.
Similarly, on the claims that the company offered “Best Policy, Best Price. That is our promise to you and your family” and “Try it Risk Free with our 30 day Money Back Guarantee” the ASA ruled that as Digital Results Group did not provide any evidence to back up these claims, they had not been substantiated and were misleading.
Consequently the ASA ruled the ads must not appear again in the form complained about.