Latest news with #Octopus
Daily Record
9 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Octopus Energy ad banned over 'misleading' heat pump cost claim
A spokesperson for the energy group "disagreed" with the ruling that the ad "was likely to mislead" An ad for Octopus Energy has been banned for misleading consumers with claims that they could have a heat pump installed for as little as £500. The Facebook ad, seen in September, said "installs from £500". The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints, including from the Energy and Utilities Alliance trade body, which challenged whether the "installs from £500" claim could be substantiated. The complaint also questioned whether the ad had left out crucial information. The ad claimed that "the government grant covers up to 90 per cent of the costs of a new heat pump". It added: "Replace your old broken boiler with an award-winning energy supplier and help stop our reliance on gas." Octopus told the ASA that the claim was based on what their customers would pay, rather than the industry average cost of heat pumps. "We disagree with this ruling," Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product and marketing officer at Octopus Energy, said. "Thirteen per cent of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA's guideline of 10 per cent. "This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector." The firm provided sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 that showed 13.9 per cent of consumers who purchased a heat pump through Octopus Energy did in fact pay £500 or less. In those cases, the total cost of installing a heat pump was £8,000, which, when the £7,500 Bus (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) funding was deducted, gave a final cost of £500. Octopus said they targeted the ad at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86 per cent of postcode districts. They referred to a consumer opinion survey they had commissioned from a third party after receiving notification of the complaints from the ASA, to see what people understood from the claim. The survey showed that 58 per cent understood that the cost of having a heat pump installed by Octopus Energy could be as low as £500 with help from government funding. The ASA said advertising regulations required that price claims such as "from" must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer. Getting into the fine print, competition and Markets Authority guidance also stated that "from" prices should reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay for the advertised product. The ASA said consumers would understand the claim "Installs from £500," in the context of the ad, to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. However, its assessment of sales data showed that at the time the ad appeared, in September 2024, 5.8 per cent of heat pump sales had been made at or below the price claimed in the ad. In the months after, less than 5.8 per cent of sales made had been at or below the claimed price. For the final two months of 2024, the proportion of heat pumps sold at or below £500 stood between 23 per cent and 24 per cent. The data did not show that a significant proportion of sales, at the time the ad appeared, though, were at the claimed price of £500. "We considered the price did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the ad appeared," the ASA said. "We had not seen sufficiently robust evidence that a significant proportion of consumers targeted by the ad could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. "We therefore concluded the ad was likely to mislead." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about. "We told Octopus to ensure that suitably robust evidence was held to demonstrate that any claimed 'from' price could be achieved by a significant proportion of consumers," it added. "We said to ensure ads making price claims for heat pump installation included all material information, including clarification of any government grant included in the advertised price, and the existence of eligibility criteria."
Leader Live
a day ago
- Business
- Leader Live
Octopus Energy ad banned over heat pump cost claim
The Facebook ad, seen in September, said 'Installs from £500' and continued: 'The government grant covers up to 90% of the costs of a new heat pump. Replace your old broken boiler with an award-winning energy supplier and help stop our reliance on gas.' The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints, including from the Energy and Utilities Alliance trade body, which challenged whether the 'installs from £500' claim could be substantiated, and whether the ad omitted material information. Octopus told the ASA that the claim was based on what their customers would pay, rather than the industry average cost of heat pumps. The firm provided sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 that showed 13.9% of consumers who purchased a heat pump through Octopus Energy paid £500 or less. In those cases, the total cost of installing a heat pump was £8,000, which, when the £7,500 Bus (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) funding was deducted, gave a final cost of £500. Octopus said they targeted the ad at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86% of postcode districts. They referred to a consumer opinion survey they had commissioned from a third party after receiving notification of the complaints from the ASA, to see what people understood from the claim, finding that 58% of respondents understood that the cost of having a heat pump installed by Octopus Energy could be as low as £500 with help from government funding. The ASA said advertising regulations required that price claims such as 'from' must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer. Competition and Markets Authority guidance similarly stated that 'from' prices should reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay for the advertised product. The ASA said consumers would understand the claim 'Installs from £500″, in the context of the ad, to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. However, its assessment of sales data showed that at the time the ad appeared, in September 2024, 5.8% of heat pump sales had been made at or below the price claimed in the ad. In the preceding months for which Octopus held data, less than 5.8% of sales made had been at or below the claimed price. For the final two months of 2024, the proportion of heat pumps sold at or below £500 stood between 23% and 24%. However, the data did not show that a significant proportion of sales, at the time the ad appeared, were at the claimed price of £500. The ASA said: 'We therefore considered the price did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the ad appeared.' It added: 'We had not seen sufficiently robust evidence that a significant proportion of consumers to whom the ad was targeted could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. We therefore concluded the ad was likely to mislead.' The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about, adding: 'We told Octopus to ensure that suitably robust evidence was held to demonstrate that any claimed 'from' price could be achieved by a significant proportion of consumers. 'We further told them to ensure ads making price claims for heat pump installation included all material information, including clarification of any government grant included in the advertised price, and the existence of eligibility criteria.' Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product and marketing officer at Octopus Energy, said: 'We disagree with this ruling. 13% of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA's guideline of 10%. 'This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector.'
STV News
a day ago
- Business
- STV News
Octopus Energy ad banned over heat pump cost claim
An ad for Octopus Energy has been banned for misleading consumers with claims that they could have a heat pump installed for as little as £500. The Facebook ad, seen in September, said 'Installs from £500' and continued: 'The government grant covers up to 90% of the costs of a new heat pump. Replace your old broken boiler with an award-winning energy supplier and help stop our reliance on gas.' PA Media The banned Octopus Energy advert (ASA/PA). The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints, including from the Energy and Utilities Alliance trade body, which challenged whether the 'installs from £500' claim could be substantiated, and whether the ad omitted material information. Octopus told the ASA that the claim was based on what their customers would pay, rather than the industry average cost of heat pumps. The firm provided sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 that showed 13.9% of consumers who purchased a heat pump through Octopus Energy paid £500 or less. In those cases, the total cost of installing a heat pump was £8,000, which, when the £7,500 Bus (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) funding was deducted, gave a final cost of £500. Octopus said they targeted the ad at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86% of postcode districts. They referred to a consumer opinion survey they had commissioned from a third party after receiving notification of the complaints from the ASA, to see what people understood from the claim, finding that 58% of respondents understood that the cost of having a heat pump installed by Octopus Energy could be as low as £500 with help from government funding. The ASA said advertising regulations required that price claims such as 'from' must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer. Competition and Markets Authority guidance similarly stated that 'from' prices should reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay for the advertised product. The ASA said consumers would understand the claim 'Installs from £500″, in the context of the ad, to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. However, its assessment of sales data showed that at the time the ad appeared, in September 2024, 5.8% of heat pump sales had been made at or below the price claimed in the ad. In the preceding months for which Octopus held data, less than 5.8% of sales made had been at or below the claimed price. For the final two months of 2024, the proportion of heat pumps sold at or below £500 stood between 23% and 24%. However, the data did not show that a significant proportion of sales, at the time the ad appeared, were at the claimed price of £500. The ASA said: 'We therefore considered the price did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the ad appeared.' It added: 'We had not seen sufficiently robust evidence that a significant proportion of consumers to whom the ad was targeted could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. We therefore concluded the ad was likely to mislead.' The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about, adding: 'We told Octopus to ensure that suitably robust evidence was held to demonstrate that any claimed 'from' price could be achieved by a significant proportion of consumers. 'We further told them to ensure ads making price claims for heat pump installation included all material information, including clarification of any government grant included in the advertised price, and the existence of eligibility criteria.' Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product and marketing officer at Octopus Energy, said: 'We disagree with this ruling. 13% of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA's guideline of 10%. 'This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Octopus Energy advert banned for misleading £500 claim
An advertisement for Octopus Energy has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading consumers regarding the true cost of heat pump installations. The Facebook ad, seen in September, stated "Installs from £500", adding: "The government grant covers up to 90 per cent of the costs of a new heat pump. Replace your old broken boiler with an award-winning energy supplier and help stop our reliance on gas." The ASA received two complaints, including from the Energy and Utilities Alliance, challenging the "installs from £500" claim's substantiation and omitted material information. Octopus told the ASA their claim reflected what customers would pay, rather than the industry average. Sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 showed 13.9 per cent of Octopus Energy heat pump customers paid £500 or less. In these instances, the £8,000 total installation cost was reduced to £500 after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) funding. The ASA ultimately found the ad misleading. Octopus said they targeted the ad at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86 per cent of postcode districts. They referred to a consumer opinion survey they had commissioned from a third party after receiving notification of the complaints from the ASA, to see what people understood from the claim, finding that 58 per cent of respondents understood that the cost of having a heat pump installed by Octopus Energy could be as low as £500 with help from government funding. The ASA said advertising regulations required that price claims such as 'from' must not exaggerate the availability or amount of benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer. Competition and Markets Authority guidance similarly stated that 'from' prices should reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay for the advertised product. The ASA said consumers would understand the claim 'Installs from £500″, in the context of the ad, to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. However, its assessment of sales data showed that at the time the ad appeared, in September 2024, 5.8 per cent of heat pump sales had been made at or below the price claimed in the ad. In the preceding months for which Octopus held data, less than 5.8 per cent of sales made had been at or below the claimed price. For the final two months of 2024, the proportion of heat pumps sold at or below £500 stood between 23 per cent and 24 per cent. However, the data did not show that a significant proportion of sales, at the time the ad appeared, were at the claimed price of £500. The ASA said: 'We therefore considered the price did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the ad appeared.' It added: 'We had not seen sufficiently robust evidence that a significant proportion of consumers to whom the ad was targeted could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. We therefore concluded the ad was likely to mislead.' The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about, adding: 'We told Octopus to ensure that suitably robust evidence was held to demonstrate that any claimed 'from' price could be achieved by a significant proportion of consumers. 'We further told them to ensure ads making price claims for heat pump installation included all material information, including clarification of any government grant included in the advertised price, and the existence of eligibility criteria.' Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product and marketing officer at Octopus Energy, said: 'We disagree with this ruling. 13 per cent of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA's guideline of 10 per cent. 'This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector.'
Auto Car
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Closest school, closest station, number of bathrooms... and now you can see how close your dream home is to an EV charger too!
One of the UK's biggest property websites will now tell you how easy it is to charge electric vehicles at the house or flat you're viewing. Zoopla has partnered with Vauxhall to make it easier for buyers and renters to find homes that are near public chargers or which have a domestic charger installed already. It has added new details to each listing on its website and app, revealing the distance between a house or flat and its nearest public charger – as it does already for schools and train stations – using data provided by energy company Octopus. Zoopla users will also be able to filter out properties that aren't equipped with home chargers from their results. The move comes in response to a Vauxhall-backed survey which found that 40% of buyers would consider proximity to EV charging facilities when next moving house. A third of the survey's 2000 respondents also said that a lack of accessible EV charging would deter them from a property - and that figure was as high as 84% for existing EV drivers. Vauxhall notes that the average UK home owner stays in one property for 17 years, so homes being purchased today will take the majority of buyers "well beyond the introduction of the forthcoming ban of new petrol and diesel car sales". The partnership with Zoopla is part of Vauxhall's 'Electric Streets of Britain' campaign, which aims to accelerate the roll-out of on-street EV charging infrastructure, in recognition that 40% of UK households don't have a driveway so can't easily have a home charger installed. Recent analysis by Zoopla of its listings found that just 1.6% explicitly mentioned EV charging capacity, despite electric cars now accounting for around a fifth of new car sales. "This comparison highlights the risk of property agents missing an opportunity to demonstrate a feature of a house or flat that is becoming increasingly vital for consumers," the company said.
