The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against William Hill Online regarding two advertisements for the brand's welcome bonus offer.
The ads – which consisted of a paid search ad on Bing and a landing page on the William Hill website – were found to be misleading due to the omission or insufficient prominence of significant conditions.
The issue centred on the exclusion of certain payment methods, including Apple Pay, from the £60 ($77) welcome bonus offer. The ASA deemed this a significant condition likely to affect consumers' understanding of how to participate in the promotion.
In the Bing search ad, no information was provided about the excluded payment methods. While the ad did link to a webpage with more details, the ASA ruled that significant conditions must be stated in all marketing communications where omission could mislead consumers.
The website landing page included small print mentioning ‘Payment methods & country restrictions apply,’ but the ASA deemed this insufficient. The specific exclusions were listed further down the page under ‘Key terms,’ but the ASA also considered this to be insufficiently prominent given their significance.
William Hill argued that space limitations in the search ad justified omitting some conditions and that the website's structure was designed to provide information progressively.
Despite this, the ASA still upheld the complaint, stating that the ads breached several rules in the CAP Code, including those related to misleading advertising and significant conditions for promotions.
As a result, the ASA has instructed William Hill to ensure future marketing communications include all significant conditions prominently to avoid misleading consumers, and the ads in question must not appear again in their current form.
