The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld two complaints against PPI Claims Management Company Ltd, trading as Lion Claimline.

An e-mail from the PPI claims management company, stated “… we only send emails to people who have provided their permission and wish to receive them”.

The complainant challenged whether the email breached the ASA’s Code because it was unsolicited and the claim “… we only send emails to people who have provided their permission and wish to receive them” was misleading and could be substantiated.

The firm said the complainant’s e-mail address had been collected by one of their external lead providers, who they commissioned to send out advertising content and who used external suppliers’ opt-in mailing lists. They said they, and their external provider, used content only from opt-in mailing lists and they provided an assurance that the complainant’s e-mail address would be removed from any further mailings.

The ASA acknowledged Lion Claimline’s assurance that they would remove the complainant’s e-mail address from their database to ensure they received no further marketing communications. However, despite the complainant’s assertion that they regularly opted-out of future e-mail communications, they had nevertheless received a further marketing communication. Because a marketing communication had been sent to a consumer unsolicited the ASA concluded it breached the Code.

Regarding the second compliant, as with the first, the ASA understood that the complainant had received a marketing communication despite not having opted in, which the ad watchdog considered contradicted Lion Claimline’s claim that they only sent e-mails to people who have provided their permission and wished to receive them. The ASA therefore concluded the claim was unsubstantiated and likely to mislead.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).

Lion Claimline was told that its ad must not appear again in its current form. The ASA told Lion Claimline to ensure they did not send unsolicited e-mails, and to avoid making claims that e-mails were sent only to those who requested them in future, unless they were able to demonstrate it unequivocally.