allAgents removes ‘endorsements’ by national newspapers

The allAgents review website has removed a claim suggesting it had been ‘endorsed’ by The Times and the Sunday Times newspapers.

The removal has happened at around the same time that the Advertising Standards Authority enquired about the appearance of The Times and Sunday Times names on the allAgents site.

An ASA spokesperson has told Letting Agent Today: “We received a complaint about a claim on the home page of allAgents that stated the service had been ‘seen on’ various media outlets including The Sunday Times and The Times.

“The complainant challenged whether the claim was misleading and could be substantiated because they understood that it was based on allAgents having paid for features to appear in those outlets.

“We approached the advertiser about the concerns that had been raised and they confirmed that they had not previously paid to be featured in these publications. However, they did not provide sufficient evidence to back up the claims that they had been featured in an endorsement related editorial piece by each publication listed. They also confirmed that the claim had been removed from the website.

“On that basis that the claims had been removed for the website we resolved the case informally.”

The informal resolution of a complaint made to the ASA come about when the authority and the advertiser exchange information and reach agreement on a course of action, removing the need for the authority to launch a formal investigation and give a judgement on further action.