Utility firm Good Energy has been banned from claiming they supply 100% renewable energy directly to consumers, following a ruling by the UK's advertising watchdog.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered the renewable energy supplier to stop saying they provided its customers with pure clean energy.
The ruling follows a complaint about a magazine advert, headlined “join the homegrown energy movement”, which boasted all the energy the company supplies “on behalf of domestic customers is certified 100% renewable”.
The insert added: “This means producing and using energy locally; making it a visible part of the local community; and reconnecting people with the source of their energy.”
But a subsequent complaint challenged whether the ad was misleading as it implied Good Energy supplied 100% renewable energy directly to customers whereas it was supplied via the national grid, which also provided energy from sources that were not renewable.
Regulators at the ASA agreed saying Good Energy could not suggest it supplied 100% renewable energy directly to consumers and breached marketing rules on the grounds of misleading advertising, substantiation and environmental claims.
In explaining its decision, the watchdog said: “The ASA noted the ad did not state that Good Energy supplied 100% renewable energy directly to consumers and included the text " ... all the energy we supply on behalf of domestic customers is certified 100% renewable", which could be interpreted as referring to the electricity Good Energy put into the national grid.
“We considered, however, that text was ambiguous. We also noted the text "We aim to change the way energy is made in the UK so we can build a 100% renewable energy future", and the statements made subsequently, were intended to refer to an aspiration.
“We considered, however, the overall impression of the ad, in particular the text "This means producing and using energy locally; making it a visible part of the local community; and reconnecting people with the source of their energy. When people know more about where their energy comes from, they value it more and use it less ... ", was such that it was likely to be interpreted as suggesting Good Energy supplied 100% renewable energy directly to consumers. Because that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”
In its adjudication, the ASA ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form, and added: “We told Good Energy to ensure future ads did not imply they supplied 100% renewable energy directly to consumers.”
Following the ruling, Juliet Davenport, CEO of Good Energy, said she was disappointed with the outcome and expressed surprise a single complaint could trigger such a ban.
She added: “Good Energy, like all utility companies, supplies its customers via the National Grid. For every unit of electricity our customers use over the course of a year we supply the National Grid with an equivalent unit from a 100% renewable source. This is independently certified by the Green Energy Tariff Certification Scheme.
"We are very disappointed with the decision by the Advertising Standards Authority, and think they made a mistake. In particular we are surprised that the ASA decided to act just on one single complaint, and we are concerned that the ASA may be used as a tool by parties trying to discredit renewable energy.
"We hope that in the future they will understand our genuine aspiration to turn the UK 100% renewable by 2050.”
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