The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a claim that an advert showing the lead-in price for a ferry crossing with DFDS Seaways was misleading.

A member of the public complained about the advert on the operator’s website in May, which said its Newcastle to Amsterdam route started ‘from £47pp one way + car’.

In a separate section at the bottom of the page, the company said: “How much is the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam? Our general crossing prices currently start from £47pp. They are calculated as one-way with 4 people per cabin and car”.

The complainant said they could not find any fares available at the £47 price.

DFDS said the standard disclaimer text that clarified that the advertised per person sale price was based on a one-way trip with car and four people in a cabin had been omitted from the web page because of human error.

But the operator said 19% of fares until December 2023 complied with the offer.

The ASA considered the claim “From £47 pp one way + car” would be understood to mean it was possible to purchase a one-way ticket for one person with a car space on the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam for £47 and that a significant number of tickets would be available at that price.

“The £47 price for a one-way ticket was only available when four places were booked in a four-person cabin, and was not available as a single fare in and of itself,” the ASA said.

“As the £47 one-way ticket was only available when booked as part of a four-person cabin, which had not been made sufficiently clear, we therefore concluded the ad was misleading.”