Trade associations the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers (FPS) and OFTEC have welcomed a decision today by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on a poster distributed by a renewable heating supplier, following challenges by both organisations.
The ASA has advised the supplier, ReEnergise, that its poster, seen in July and August last year, must not appear again in its current form.
In the poster, it was wrongly claimed that “oil heating will be outlawed by 2030” and it encouraged schools and colleges to switch to alternative systems ahead of then.
Because the ASA had not seen evidence that showed that the government intended to prohibit, as opposed to phase out, the use of oil from estates, it concluded the claim “had not been substantiated, was therefore misleading and breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation)”.
OFTEC CEO Paul Rose added: “These misleading claims may have been a great cause of concern for many schools and led them to falsely believe they had to switch to an alternative heating system. This would have been completely unnecessary.
“Liquid fuels are very much part of the future energy mix and we welcome this ruling from the ASA as it demonstrates the importance of ensuring schools and other organisations are given accurate information, so they make informed decisions.”